Cyber-attacks have become very routine nowadays, with a lot of large-scale issues occurring on a weekly basis. Earlier, cyber attacks had only threatened local regions, but now they have hit world governments. Mexico has become the most recent country to announce a cyber-attack on its borders. Last Sunday, the ministry of economy of the region spotted an attack on some of its important servers
The Mexican ministry has stated that no sensitive information or data has been compromised given the severity of the attack. We have upgraded security protocols and procedures to ensure future safer firewalls. This was not the first time hackers had attacked Mexico since last November the country had been going through a similar event.
Officials close to the ministry have reassured everyone that no sensitive information pertaining to national security was stolen. The department has not yet revealed all the details about the attack and therefore it is not known if there existed a ransom note or not.
During the Pemex attack, hackers asked Bitcoin for $5 million to keep sensitive information from leaking to the organization’s servers. The hack also forced the company to shut down all systems and freeze payment systems. A ransom note found sent to Pemex showed a darknet website linked to DoppelPaymer, a ransomware-type.
The attacker had demanded 565 Bitcoin and threatened Pemex with a 48-hour deadline. The suspicious website also added that Pemex had missed the window for a special reduced ransom.
Last year, investigations had discovered that a lot of personal data may have been compromised in a data breach of a system hosted by the DISA. The DISA stands for the Defense Information Systems Agency and is responsible for providing direct telecommunications and IT support to the POTUS.