Panama’s Ministry of Economic system and Finance (MEF) has disclosed that one in every of its computer systems might have been compromised in a cyberattack..
The federal government famous that it activated the safety procedures for these conditions, stating that the incident has been contained and did not influence core programs which can be very important to its operations.
“The Ministry of Economic system and Finance informs the general public that in the present day an incident involving potential malicious software program was detected on one of many Ministry’s workstations,” MEF says in an official assertion.
“The established safety protocols had been instantly activated, and preventive measures throughout the whole IT system had been bolstered to include the intrusion.”
“It is very important emphasize that none of MEF’s central programs or platforms have been compromised they usually proceed working usually.”
Panama’s MEF is a vital ministry within the nation, managing fiscal coverage, public spending, and debt administration. Most significantly, it handles the Panama Canal revenues, the nation’s largest supply of revenue.
The MEF says that non-public and institutional information are secure, and all industry-standard measures are in place to forestall future incidents.
Hoewever, the INC Ransom gang has claimed an assault on MEF final week in a submit on its information leak web site. The hackers say that they stole greater than 1.5 TB of information from MEF’s programs, together with emails, monetary paperwork, budgeting particulars, and extra.
The risk group added MEF to its record of victims on the darkish internet on September 5, and leaked information samples within the type of inner paperwork as proof of the breach.
Supply: BleepingComputer
BleepingComputer contacted MEF to ask concerning the validity of INC Ransom’s claims, however now we have not obtained a response by publication time.
INC Ransom emerged in mid-2023 as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS). They focused a number of high-profile victims akin to Yamaha Motor, Xerox Enterprise Answer, Scotland’s NHS, McLaren Well being Care, the Texas State Bar, and Ahold Delhaize.
In Might 2024, a risk actor utilizing the moniker “salfetka” posted on the Russian-speaking hacking boards that that they had the supply code for the ransomware and supplied to promote it for $300,000.
46% of environments had passwords cracked, almost doubling from 25% final yr.
Get the Picus Blue Report 2025 now for a complete have a look at extra findings on prevention, detection, and information exfiltration developments.
