Early Tuesday morning, Hospitals and clinics were hit by a cyberattack, said the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS). The attack was one among many attacks that have lately targeted the Central American country.
CCSS had to shut down its digital record-keeping system due to the cyberattack; the shutdown affected some 1,200 hospitals and clinics that caused inconvenience to thousands of patients, reported the public health agency.
“It was an exceptionally violent attack, but we have no evidence that a critical database or system was compromised,” said CCSS President Alvaro Ramos in a news conference, adding that 30 of the 1,500 servers owned by the CCSS were affected.
The national health platform will take several days to become operational, Ramos stated.
Costa Rica stated that it had been the target of several cyberattacks in the recent past, and some of the attacks disrupted foreign trade and tax collection operations. The attacks led President Rodrigo Chaves to declare a national emergency on May 8.
In early May, the U.S. State Department attributed other recent attacks on Costa Rica’s government agencies to the alleged Russian-based ransomware group, Conti. No person or group has taken credit for the recent hit to the healthcare system, Ramos said.
Officials said the governments of the United States, Israel and Spain had offered help to restore the network and cyber infrastructure and prevent future attacks.
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