Criminals managed to fully encrypt the database of the Superior Court of Justice between Monday and Tuesday this week (02-03), leaving the institution in the dark. Today (05), STJ technicians found a ransom request, with a hacker contact, for negotiation. The information is from the backstage.
The message is vague, but gives all indications that it is ransomware, when hackers hijack important databases and then ask for large sums of money – usually to be paid in Bitcoin – to return access to the victim.
Hackers leave contact to negotiate rescue of the STJ database (Reproduction / O Bastidor)
In the message in English, the hackers announced the attack, saying that “all files have been completely encrypted”. There is even a warning for technicians about possible file corruption in case of attempts to decrypt the servers. Hackers still offer to restore affected items.
Who is behind this?
There is still no official information on the possible identification of the criminals behind the attacks on the STJ, Ministry of Health, Government of the DF and more other public institutions this week.
The message found by the technicians of the STJ does not have any information about values that criminals want to receive in return for returning the database. There also doesn’t seem to be any kind of political motivation in the text.
This could indicate an attack by independent criminals, but it is not yet possible to rule out the action of foreign governments. Before the Bolsonaro government, Brazil was an essentially neutral nation in international affairs and conflicts, which changed after the current president took office.
None of this is speculation at the moment, but episodes like this week’s attacks have already taken place in countries like the USA and Ukraine, and in many cases, they stem from targeted attacks in response to political statements by presidents and other leaders.
The STJ has not yet officially positioned itself on the subject.
Source: (https://www.tecmundo.com.br/)
