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Paraguay’s government has said it “contained” two breaches of sensitive data by a cybercrime group earlier this month. But the statement sparked criticism from people pointing out that some stolen information had already been released online.
On June 22, a group calling itself CyberTeam posted screenshots on X showing information from Paraguay’s Jury of Judgment of Magistrates, and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
Within hours, the Ministry of Technology and Information released a statement saying it had detected breaches at the two bodies on June 14, adding that “response protocols were immediately activated.”
“Both incidents are contained, and analysis is ongoing to fully mitigate and restore normal operations,” the ministry said.
The brief statement prompted scores of skeptical responses from people on X.
“But if the data has already been exposed, what else will they contain?” asked one user.
Another person quipped: “after they took all the data??”
The Jury of Judgment of Magistrates — which oversees the conduct of judges and prosecutors — did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
According to screenshots posted to the CyberTeam’s X account, the group has managed to extract information about judges and prosecutors, as well as data from the National Program to Combat AIDS.
It was just the latest in a series of attacks on Paraguayan institutions.
“This issue will continue. This is simply proof of the structural inability or incapacity of the Paraguayan state to define effective policies regarding technology in general,” Luis Benitez, a digital security expert, told OCCRP.
"In the event of a data breach, there is no possibility of containment, since the data has already spread across the deep web," he added.
OCCRP reported on June 12 that the government decided not to pay a $7.4-million ransom to a group calling itself Brigada Cyber PMC, which had hacked citizenship data. The group released the information after its June 13 deadline passed with no payment.
Paraguay launched a cybersecurity strategy a week after the data was released.
Another of the recent attacks was carried out by a group called Flax Typhoon, which Paraguayan and U.S. authorities said was linked to the Chinese government.
