A Pacific Island With Ties to Taiwan Was Hacked. Was It Political?

Palau, a clump of about 350 small islands in the Pacific Ocean, has become increasingly important to the United States as China tries to build clout in the Indo-Pacific. This year, Washington finalized a long-delayed plan to give Palau hundreds of millions of dollars in aid over two decades.

Hours before diplomats gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Palau to toast the agreement, the island nation was hit by an enormous cyberattack. More than 20,000 documents were stolen from the government.

A few weeks later, in April, they appeared on the dark web. There was a presentation about a U.S. radar installation on Palau marked, “For Official Use Only.” There were crew lists of Japanese Navy ships that had visited Palau. And there were hundreds of documents detailing the close relationship between Palau and Taiwan.

Palau is one of the few countries in the world that recognize Taiwan as an independent democracy. The leaders of Palau say the hack was orchestrated by China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, and was meant to send a message. Beijing has enticed other countries, like Nauru, another Pacific nation, to sever ties with Taipei.

China rejected the accusation, and experts say that Palau has not presented any evidence that implicates Beijing. A ransomware group known as DragonForce has claimed responsibility, saying it carried out the hack purely for financial gain. The group has threatened to do more harm to Palau.