In Mexico, the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) reported from its Twitter account that its platform was hacked to mine cryptocurrencies. The attack was a case of cryptojacking.
The failures with the National Transparency Platform began at noon on September 20, according to the INAI. At the end of the day, the platform worked as usual.
What is Cryptojacking?
Cryptojacking works on computers, mobile devices, and even servers, as it appears to be in this case. Malicious software is used to steal the processing capacity of the computer that is the victim of the attack and these resources are used to mine cryptocurrencies, according to Malwarebytes and Kaspersky.
In cryptojacking, there is no violation of personal data. However, the case reported by the INAI is important because it is the first case of large-scale cryptojacking reported by a federal instance in Mexico.
The type of attack is not new. In 2019, Microsoft removed eight apps from its store that used resources on the computer where they were installed to perform mining. Since equipment resources are occupied in mining, it is common for the performance of the affected equipment to be affected and even to overheat.
What is the National Transparency Platform?
The PNT is a tool that unifies and facilitates access to public government information. In the online portal www.plataformadetransparencia.org.mx, any Mexican and Mexican can be registered using a username and password to request some type of public information.
The four basic tools that the platform allows are the request for access to information, management of challenge means, portals of transparency obligations, as well as communication between guarantor bodies and obligated subjects.
Adrián Alcalá Méndez, coordinator of Access to Information of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), has expressed that this platform enhances the exercise of the right to public information, by establishing a new paradigm in Transparency and accountability.
In Latin America, cyberattacks are a raising problem. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, cybercrime has cost the region 90 billion dollars a year.
Read also: Latin America in the Global Cybersecurity Index 2020