Hackers Exploit AI and Deepfakes to Breach Fiji Businesses, Expert Warns

Hackers are increasingly using AI and deepfakes to breach Fijian businesses, with attack timelines shrinking from months to hours, warned Chillisoft CEO Alex Teh at the Cybersec Fiji 2026 Symposium. Teh identified ransomware groups Akira, Qilin, and RedLine as active threats, noting that Fiji-based Pacific Building Solutions was recently hit by Qilin. He urged businesses to move beyond multi-factor authentication and audit access privileges for humans, machines, and AI agents, while highlighting a regional shortage of cybersecurity specialists.

Hackers in the Pacific are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to break into company systems, according to a warning delivered at the Cybersec Fiji 2026 Symposium this week. Chillisoft CEO Alex Teh told the roughly 200 attendees that identity theft has become a primary entry point for cybercriminals, who are no longer just probing networks but actively manipulating the employees who hold access to them. The warning matters now because attack timelines that once stretched over months are shrinking to hours, leaving Fijian businesses with far less room to react. Teh named three ransomware groups by title, Akira, Qilin, and RedLine, as active threats using deepfakes and AI-generated phishing to impersonate trusted contacts and pressure staff into handing over credentials. Interpol has separately flagged Fiji as a target region for RedLine malware, which is designed to harvest personal data, cryptocurrency wallets, and sensitive documents. Teh pointed to a concrete local case, saying Fiji-based Pacific Building Solutions was recently hit by Qilin ransomware, underscoring that the threat has already moved from theory to practice. The broader picture is a region caught short-handed: Fiji and its neighbors face a shortage of cybersecurity specialists, limited cyber investigators, and scarce digital forensic capability. Teh argued the fix is already partly in place, pointing to the country’s IT graduate pipeline and new institutional support, and said the next step is retaining that talent locally rather than losing it overseas. How Hackers Are Targeting Fiji’s Businesses AI-Powered Social Engineering Replaces Slower Tactics Teh described a shift in method rather than just scale. Where older attacks relied on brute-force password guessing or generic phishing emails, hackers https://www.kobaran.com/tag/Hackers are now using AI tools to generate convincing deepfake audio and video, along with phishing messages tailored to specific employees. The targets are deliberately chosen: people who hold what Teh called “the keys to company systems,” meaning privileged users with elevated access to networks, financial systems, or administrative controls. Named Ransomware Groups Active in the Region Teh identified three groups currently operating against Pacific Island organizations. Each uses a different method, but all rely on compromised credentials as an entry point. | Group | Primary Method | Regional Activity Noted by Teh | |---|---|---| | Akira | Targets passwords and privileged accounts | Named as active against Pacific businesses | | Qilin | Ransomware deployment after network access | Hit Fiji-based Pacific Building Solutions | | RedLine | Steals personal data, crypto wallets, documents | Flagged by Interpol as targeting Fiji | Why Multi-Factor Authentication Is No Longer Enough Teh cautioned businesses against treating multi-factor authentication as a complete defense, calling it “the bare minimum” rather than a solution on its own. He said organizations need to go further by auditing access privileges across three categories: human employees, machines, and AI agents. On the last point, Teh warned that granting AI systems excessive access creates a new category of risk that many companies have not yet accounted for in their security planning. The Shrinking Window to Respond From Months to Hours One of Teh’s more pointed warnings concerned speed. He said vulnerabilities that previously took attackers months to exploit can now be weaponized within hours, a shift he attributed to AI-assisted attack tools. Teh suggested this trend will eventually force businesses toward what he termed “zero-minute protection,” meaning defenses that respond to a breach attempt in real time rather than during a scheduled review cycle. A Regional Skills Gap This acceleration is colliding with a workforce problem. Teh said the wider region is short on trained cybersecurity specialists, cyber investigators, and forensic experts capable of responding once an intrusion is detected, which stretches out recovery time even after an attack is identified. Fiji’s Graduate Pipeline as a Partial Answer Teh pushed back on the idea that Fiji lacks the talent to close that gap, noting the country produces roughly 1,000 IT graduates annually, with about 700 of them coming from Fiji National University. He framed the challenge as retention rather than supply, telling attendees that Fiji is producing strong graduates and the priority should be helping them build careers domestically instead of losing them to opportunities abroad. Institutional and International Support Teh pointed to Fiji’s newly established Computer Emergency Response Team as a potential pathway for young professionals entering the sector. He also noted that funding from the Fijian Government, along with support from Australia, the United States, and the United Nations, could help build the capacity needed to protect local infrastructure over the longer term.