Hackers put Brazilian government on alert

Last year, hundreds of Brazilian authorities had their cell phone security breached by amateur hackers. Some of the country’s biggest political figures were affected, including President Jair Bolsonaro, Supreme Court justices, the heads of both congressional houses, the prosecutor general, and Economy Minister Paulo Guedes. The most visible face of this massive hack was the so-called “Car Wash Leaks,” when website The Intercept began leaking private messages exchanged by members of Operation Car Wash — eviscerating the inner workings of the anti-corruption probe.

Now, Brazil faces a potentially more severe attack.

The Federal Police and a group of information security experts are investigating a hack of the Superior Court of Justice. An unknown group infected the network of Brazil’s second-highest judicial body on Tuesday — since then, justices have been unable to access their emails or any of the 250,000-plus cases under their jurisdiction. 

As a means of damage control, the court’s IT department has taken its website off the air. So far, the problem remains unsolved — and its origin, unknown.

Civil servants working in the court told The Brazilian Report that the hack was likely made possible due to vulnerabilities generated...