In Costa Rica, numerous government agencies are targeted by ransomware attacks, with hackers hoping to obtain multi-million dollar ransom payments from the government.
Panic in Costa Rica. Rodrigo Chaves has declared a national state of emergency as the Conti group threatens the country’s administrations with its ransomware attacks. Barely invested, the brand new president (and former Minister of Public Finance) signed a decree bringing the country into a regime which, officially, should allow it to better protect itself against the cyberattacks of Conti, launched last month.
One of the main organizations affected is the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), the national public health agency. But the first state entity targeted was the Ministry of Finance, which has still not fully assessed the scope of the attack on it. Personal data of taxpayers, tax payment systems and customs records would nevertheless have been affected.
Crack the government
Conti, for his part, continues to publish information from a block of 672 GB of data stolen from the administration’s servers during his attacks, increasing the pressure on the public authorities. The group of hackers reportedly demanded a ransom of $10 million from the Ministry of Finance. The other affected bodies were probably also asked to pay to regain access to their computer systems.
The hackers hope that citizens will also end up demanding that their government give in to their pressure. It is for this reason that the family allowance fund, social security, the meteorological agency and even the inter-university systems have also been targeted. Conti’s objective: to block the country, and more particularly the organs on which the lives of Costa Ricans depend. In addition to unpaid pensions, some companies see their activity blocked for lack of access to certain Treasury services allowing them to obtain legal documents and certificates.
For the time being, the government refuses to deal with hackers, who threaten attacks “even tougher”. This is also the rule enacted by all cybersecurity agencies in this type of attack, because paying is in no way the guarantee of regaining access to blocked computers while the funds paid to hackers would not encourage the proliferation of ransomware while funding their activities.
“The attack that Costa Rica is suffering from cybercriminals, cyberterrorists, is declared a national emergency and we sign this decree, precisely, to declare a state of national emergency in the entire public sector of the Costa Rican state and allow our society to respond to these attacks as criminal acts”, explained Rodrigo Chaves, surrounded by his ministers. The government is offering up to $10 million to anyone with information to identify and locate the hackers, with a bonus of $5 million if the information leads to the hackers’ arrest.