https://time.com/6169890/cyber-attack-chaos-costa-rica/
This article talks about how lots of chaos occurring from ransomware attack that has crippled Costa Rica’s government IT systems is entering its second week with no resolution in sight. The Costa Rica government is refusing to pay the hacker like they want, however the hacker has begun publishing the stolen information which could be very bad for Costa Rica. The Costa Rican government surprisely stood firm in the face of the ransom demand, despite damages that reportedly run into the hundreds of millions of dollars they are refusing to throw in the towel and pay off the hackers.
This is important because the systems that the hacker got into the government system has been affected from tax collection to importation and exportation processes through the customs agency. This ransomware group of hackers has stolen at least a terabyte of data, and having seen its demands $10 millions to not share the data. When the Costa Rica government refused to pay it is said that the hackers published 80% of their information on the dark web.
This relates to International relation class will have detrimental effects on the national security of Costa Rica’s government. With Costa Rica in the process of changing president and now having a huge breach in their national security we could see the Costa Rica government plument quickly. The incident has already caused serious damage due to disruption of the country’s tax and customs platforms.There are reports that Costa Rica has already lost out 200 million alone this wednesday. This is because the government is unable to collect taxes with the government website and other internal systems remain offline. I also found it interesting that the Russian-speaking Conti gang claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the Costa Rican government has not confirmed if this is true or not.