The number of cyber-attacks hitting Costa Rica is at an unprecedented level. According to the director of Digital Governance, Jorge Mora, the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (Micitt) indicated that more than 4 million attacks have been attempted on Costa Rica’s public intuitions in one recent 24 hour period.
This topic was addressed during a virtual press conference that was held to discuss the recent cyber-attack by the Conti Ransomware gang that adversely affected the Costa Rica government computer systems. Due to this attack, the group has already leaked 50% of the data it has stolen, including over 850GB from the Finance Ministry as the Costa Rican government insisted that it will not pay the demanded ransom that is reported to be 10 million dollars.
During the conference call Mora explained that the more than 4 million recent cyber-attack attempts are divided into the following categories:
- 2.7 Million of Malware
- 800,000 Phishing
- 84,000 Crypto Mining
- 1.2 million of Command and Control Activities (Conti style)
He also explained during the call that “There were attempts of communication by means of control commands. They were mitigated and blocked. This weekend the Internet has been disconnected and the revision has begun”.
He went on to explain that these attempts were detected thanks to the protection systems recently installed by the institutions.
