San Jose, 19 April (Prensa Latina) Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Education (MEP) today disabled the salary system amid fears of a new hack by “cyber hackers” who have already breached several official platforms and are threatening to smash the expand attack.
The decision comes in response to confirmation by the MEP and the Supreme Electoral Court of difficulties in conducting procedures related to this form.
This is the latest official action after the Ministries of Finance and Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (Micitt) admitted this Monday that some of their platforms have been penetrated by the Conti ransomware malware, which is now threatening to destroy the internal data of the first divulge wallet.
According to the website, Conti hinted that “we will continue to attack Costa Rican ministries. Until the government pays us, the attack will continue today. We will start publishing internal documents, we will save taxpayers’ databases for later».
Conti is a group of hackers that organizes attacks on companies, individuals or government institutions to hijack sensitive information and demand money for not making that information public. These “cyber hackers” would demand payment of $10 million in order not to reveal the stolen data.
In addition, today the Costa Rica Social Security Fund (CCSS) Twitter account was the third platform compromised by cyberattacks, but this time the company’s experts managed to recover it, but after the hackers found at least 10 tweets with an alleged sweepstakes had released five thousand bitcoins in which dozens of users were tagged.
In statements to the press, the former head of the Micitt, Luis Adrián Salazar, called for addressing this issue as a national priority, as these could be sporadic events that could be more structured and would place the country in a very complex situation.
Salazar, a computer security expert, warned that a cyberattack could include breaching the platforms of hospitals, airports, and power plants, among other things.
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