Hello, and welcome to the Latin America Weekly newsletter! In this issue: a major cyberattack hits Costa Rica, Petro clashes with the Army in Colombia, talks surface about a Latin American trade bloc, Mexico sees murder numbers fall.
Costa Rica faces massive government cyberattack
An unprecedented ransomware attack has compromised several government servers in Costa Rica. At least six institutions were confirmed to be under attack and suffered blackouts. The hack began on April 18, with the Finance Ministry reporting the theft of 1 terabyte of sensitive data.
What happened. Prolific hacking group Conti claimed responsibility for the attacks. They set a USD 10 million ransom to halt further cyberattacks and restore access to stolen data. Conti even proposed a 35-percent discount if payment were made by April 23, but the government said it won’t negotiate with cybercriminals.
- In its 2021 Internet Crime Report, the FBI says Conti “most frequently victimized the critical manufacturing, commercial facilities, and food and agriculture sectors” in the U.S.
Why it matters. Conti is a Russian-backed group that issued warnings to foes of the Kremlin back in February. Security experts fear Costa Rica could have been used as a testing ground for a wider...