By Solomon Odunayo
As a report has it, a group of hackers has successfully effected a brief shut down of Argentina border after launching a ransomware attack, which resulted in stealing sensitive data from the country’s immigration service.
This is one of the reasons why Bitcoin (BTC) is being accused of aiding criminals to easily store their fraudulently acquired wealth, in order to stay out of the reach of third-parties.
Cybercriminals Demands $4 Million Worth Of Bitcoin (BTC)
According to BleepingComputer $4 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) ransom was demanded by a group of cybercriminals after compromising the computer systems of Argentina’s border control agency, Dirección Nacional de Migraciones.
Based on the criminal complaint filed by the Argentinian cybersecurity agency, Unidad Fiscal Especializada en Ciberdelincuencia, the government was notified in the build-up to the security blow. There were calls from various security checkpoints, soliciting for tech reinforcement in the course of the NetWalker-styled ransomware attack on their systems:
“(The team) realized that it was not an ordinary situation, and evaluated the Central Data and Distributed Servers infrastructure, noting the activity of a virus that had affected the system’s MS Windows-based files (mainly ADAD SYSVOL and SYSTEM CENTER DPM) and Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, etc.) in users’ jobs and shared folders.”
As reported by another local news channel, activity was halted for four hours at Argentina’s border, after the Comprehensive Migration Capture System (SICaM) that monitors international crossings rebooted all their servers, which resulted in delays of the usual movement of people.
A further report from BleepingComputer has it that the initial ransom demanded by the hackers was $2 million in Bitcoin (BTC), but was later doubled by the perpetrators after seven days.
As it is now, the country’s government seems not ready to negotiate with the hackers, which presently cast doubt on the safe return of the stolen data.
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