Costa Rica Hived’ – Public Health Systems took offline

Costa Rica has become a victim of ransomware attacks, now an attack on the government agency’s computer system led the country’s public health agency to shut down its systems, complicating the medical facilities for many people.

Approximately the number is around 30 out of 1500 Social Security agency servers were infected with ransomware.

Earlier in April the year, the Russian Conti group has strikes Costa Rica, where the newly elected government said that our country is facing a war. This time the attack appeared to come from another ransomware gang known as “Hive.” both the operators are different, but experts pointed out some background relationship has existed.

Later Tuesday, a portal Hive uses to negotiate with its targets appeared to indicate otherwise.

“To decrypt your systems you have to pay $5,000,000 in Bitcoin,” Hive’s message said.

Payroll and pension were not affected, but people who depend on the public health system were affected badly. Nearly 300 systems experts were working on the issue.

The shutdown was also keeping the government from updating its COVID-19 infection numbers amid a new wave of infections, according to Health Ministry. It also meant the Health Ministry could not issue orders to those infected to isolate.

Social Security agency officials said they expected their systems to be back up in the coming days and that meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign would continue.