Crypto-hackers are holding the Costa Rican healthcare system to ransom for $5B in bitcoin
Tuesday, the Costa Rican healthcare system became the target of hackers known as 'Hive' who, after encrypting the Social Security agency's servers have demanded that it pays "$5,000,000 in bitcoin" to decrypt them again.
As a precaution, the agency shut down its systems, leaving thousands of people needing medical attention in the dirt, thanks to the greed of these malevolent hackers. As if hospitals didn't have enough virus to deal with already right now.
What a world we live in.
Tech Xplore(opens in new tab), which brought the mess to our attention, also stresses that there's been no way for them to update their COVID-19 infection numbers, even as a wave of infection sweeps across the country.
The latest attack, which has seen at least 30 of its 1,500 servers infected with ransomeware, follows on from another severe breach of security back in April which had Costa Rica declaring a national emergency(opens in new tab). It has been suggested that attack was carried out by a Russian-speaking group known as Conti.
Initially considered separate entities, it is now being thought that maybe Hive and Conti are linked in some way. Ransomware analyst, Britt Callow, cited in the Tech Xplore report, believes «at a minimum, it would seem that somebody who works with Conti is also working with Hive.»
This is likely since «it's been increasingly challenging for [Conti] to collect payments since declaring their support for Russia and threatening attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure.»
Meanwhile, the people of Costa Rica are back to working with pen and paper in hospitals, meaning it takes longer to get people through the system.
The report also mentions Roger González, a retired publicist in San Jose, who says he was meant to
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