By Aditi Mukund
Delhi, Aug 18: On the evening of Friday, the 13th of August, the Brazilian National Treasury was hit by a ransomware attack. A Treasury is where all the funds of a company or country are kept (comes from the word treasure).
A ransomware attack is when someone encrypts (locks up) the data of an organisation and asks the organisation to pay a certain amount.
Effects of the attack
The effects of the attack are being analysed by security specialists from the National Treasury, and also by other government bodies like the Digital Government Secretariat. The Digital Government Secretariat is a special body that was created in July 2021 specifically to fight ransomware attacks on Brazilian government organisations. The Brazilian Federal Police has also been informed about the attack.
Till now, no damage has been noticed to the structuring (the relation between parts of something complex) systems of the National Treasury. Tesouro Direto, a program that allows individuals to buy Bonds (a kind of deposit) of the Brazilian Government, was also reported unaffected by the cyber-attack. This is not the first time that the Brazilian government has had to face a cyber-attack. In November 2020, the Brazilian Superior Court was also affected. At that time, the Court’s functioning was affected for nearly two weeks.