Justice system hack exposes Brazil’s worrying cybersecurity flaws

Just as scientists spent years warning of the dangers of a potential pandemic caused by an airborne virus, experts are now ringing the bell for the next great threat: cyber warfare. Last week’s hack of the systems running Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice — the country’s second-highest judicial body — is the worst ever against a national government network, and served as a reminder of how Latin America’s biggest nation is ill-equipped to face cyberattacks.

While backups allowed the court’s IT department to salvage information on over 250,000 active cases, trials continue to be canceled over a week after the attack. 

Employees of the court tell The Brazilian Report that the perpetrators of the hack have asked for a ransom in exchange for returning data. So far, experts have yet to determine whether the hacker (or hackers) managed to access sealed information on interested parties in lawsuits...