Colombia’s Military and Police Criminal Justice system has announced that it was the victim of a significant cyberattack recently. Following an initial assessment of this situation, the entity warned its users about the hijacking of very sensitive information. The compromised data includes network service configurations and also important administrative and jurisdictional information from their internal computer systems. The Gunra hacking group has now publicly claimed to have breached the Colombian justice entity and has stolen 45 terabytes of data. This stolen data reportedly includes internal personnel records, various organizational data, and also a large number of other internal documents.
Due to this serious security situation in Colombia, all proceedings that are under the regime of the Military Penal Code have been suspended. The entity’s public-facing website was still presenting failures even a day after the cyberattack was first reported early yesterday morning. However, all petitions, official complaints, various claims, different requests, and other legal reports will still be received in person by officials. This in-person service is available at the Judicial Services Center and at other judicial and prosecutorial offices throughout the entire country. The organization is now working on contingency plans, seeking the recovery and stabilization of its technological services for the public.
The military justice body in Colombia has officially reported the incident to the relevant authorities and has initiated its full response.
They are seeking the complete recovery and also the full stabilization of all of their affected technological services and systems. This recovery effort is being done in close collaboration with the technology companies that own the affected systems being used. The entity stated that the restoration of affected systems will only happen when it is certified that the environments are completely secure. They also must ensure that the integrity of all the data that they hold is fully guaranteed before resuming any online services.
Although there is no updated data on public entity cyberattacks, these crimes have been a major concern in the country.
A report from the cybersecurity firm Sophos revealed some very alarming statistics regarding the current cybersecurity landscape in Colombia. The report showed that after Mexico and France, Colombia is the third country with the highest global cybercrime index rating. Colombia’s cybercrime index is at a very high seventy-six percent, which clearly indicates a significant level of malicious online activity. This recent attack underscores the cybersecurity challenges now facing public and private entities located within the country of Colombia and beyond.
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