Costa Rican government held up by ransomware … again

Last month the notorious Russian ransomware gang Conti threatened to overthrow Costa Rica's government if a ransom wasn't paid. This month, another band of extortionists has attacked the nation. Fresh off an intrusion by Conti last month, Costa Rica has been attacked by the Hive ransomware gang. According to the AP, Hive hit Costa Rica's Social Security system, and also struck the country's public health agency, which had to shut down its computers on Tuesday to prevent the spread of a malware outbreak. The Costa Rican government said at least 30 of the agency's servers were infected, and its attempt at shutting down systems to limit damage appears to have been unsuccessful. Hive is now asking for $5 million in Bitcoin to unlock infected systems. Hive and Conti weren't known to be acting together in any way, but Emsisoft ransomware analyst Brett Callow told the AP that there's probably someone coordinating between the two groups. Read more about it: here