Costa Rica has declared a state of national emergency and a hacker warns of possible attacks on other Latin American governments.
Rodrigo Chaves, newly elected president of Costa Rica, a country located in Central America, has declared a state of emergency following the hacking of its systems last April.
According to published reports, following the cyber attack, Costa Rica lost control over several of its IT services, including its tax and export systems, forcing the national government to suspend several of its activities and disable its digital platforms.
The cyberattack paralyzed several platforms and systems of Costa Rican government agencies, including its security agencies.
In the attack, which is the work of the Russian-linked hacker group Conti, 672 GB of information from the Costa Rican government was leaked, 97% of which have already been published on the hacker group's information leak portal, according to a report by cybersecurity specialist BleepingComputer.
National emergency in Costa Rica
On April 18, the Costa Rican government's computer systems were breached by the Conti hacker group. The Ministry of Finance was among the affected entities, affecting customs and tax reporting services.
However, in the leak portal, Conti claims that he also accessed the digital platforms of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications, the Social Development and Family Allowances Fund, the Interuniversity Headquarters of Alajuela, the National Meteorological Institute, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund and the Administrative Board of the Electric Service of the province of Cartago in Costa Rica.
Two weeks after the massive hack, the country is still struggling to regain control of its systems, forcing its current president to declare a state of emergency.
$10 million in ransom
Following the leak of information stolen from the Costa Rican government, hackers from the Conti group criticized the decision not to pay the ransom and let the data leak on the Internet.
The cyber attack sought extort the Costa Rican government for 10 million dollars, to supposedly return the information and release the hacked systems. However, the government refused to pay this sum, although the attack caused its institutions to lose access and control of their computer platforms, which ended up affecting its productive system and a large part of the country's operating capacity.
Other Latin American governments at risk of ransomware
Conti hackers claim that the cyberattack was not funded by any external government, but rather was a “money-making” move.
In his statements, the hacker “UNC1756” claims that he was the one who carried out the attack on Costa Rican government platforms together with an ally. He also indicated that is preparing a larger team to execute new ransomware attacks against other governments in the region.
“Costa Rica is the demo version”, UNC1756 said.
In response to the threat, the US State Department has pledged to fight ransomware and to find the person responsible for this cyberattack. The US agency is offering a $10 million reward for anyone who provides information on the identity and location of the hackersHe also promised another $5 million to anyone who leads to his arrest and conviction.
In April, the FBI warned of the risks posed by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus to businesses and service platforms in the crypto industry.
Continue reading: FBI warns that North Korea is launching cyberattacks on crypto targets
