Costa Rica Refuses to Pay Cyber Ransom

Costa Rica says it will not pay a ransom to a cyber-legal gang that has infected its government’s pc units with ransomware.

The disruption of numerous programs was first reported a week back by the country’s Finance Ministry. An attack on the ministry impacted various procedures, including tax selection, the payment of public employees and the importation and exportation of merchandise by Costa Rica’s customs company. 

Further more attacks have been waged towards Costa Rica’s Labor Ministry, the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), the Countrywide Meteorological Institute (IMN), the Radiográfica Costarricense (RACSA) and a human assets portal belonging to the country’s Social Security company, Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social.

✔ Approved From Our Partners

Protect and backup your data using AOMEI Backupper. AOMEI Backupper takes secure and encrypted backups from your Windows, hard drives or partitions. With AOMEI Backupper you will never be worried about loosing your data anymore.

Get AOMEI Backupper with 72% discount from an authorized distrinutor of AOMEI: SerialCart® (Limited Offer).

➤ Activate Your Coupon Code

Head of MICITT, Paola Vega Castillo, explained that although the contents of his ministry’s web web site had been modified, no evidence had been uncovered to counsel that any data belonging to the ministry experienced been extracted.

Talking at a push meeting on Wednesday, Castillo claimed that a “process of extracting email archives” had been detected in the attacks on RACSA and IMN.

Russian-speaking ransomware group Conti claimed responsibility for the attacks, but neither the id nor the geographical place of the perpetrators has been confirmed by the Costa Rican federal government. 

Conti statements to have received access to about 800 servers belonging to the govt and has reportedly demanded a ransom payment of $10m. The gang statements to have stolen 1TB of facts in the attack, including 900GB of databases from a tax administration portal and 100GB of interior paperwork containing individual details which belong to the Ministry of Finance.

Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado said: “The Costa Rican condition will not spend anything to these cyber-criminals.” 

Minister of the Presidency Geannina Dinarte Romero said that Israel, Spain, the United States, Microsoft and GBM experienced supplied to assist Costa Rica get back control of its computer devices.

Christian Rucavado, executive director of Costa Rica’s Exporters Chamber, told US News that the attack on the customs agency had slowed trade. 

Rucavado stated: “We have asked the government for several steps like growing hours so they can go to to exports and imports.”