After suffering the most serious cyberattack ever orchestrated against a Brazilian public sector institution, the Supreme Electoral Court (STJ) has managed to get its systems back up and running after nearly three weeks of disruption. Following the ransomware attack on November 3, the systems were unavailable for 26 hours while the Federal Police investigated and gathered evidence about the incident.
The federal data processing agency “Serpro” and the army’s cyber defense unit are also involved in the investigation, which is currently underway . However, the Court had to find a way to serve urgent cases until November 20, when its systems were fully restored.
According to the president of the STJ, minister Henrique Martins, this ransomware attack was the most serious cyberattack that a Brazilian government organization has suffered to date, both in scale and complexity.
As ZDNet reports, the Brazilian Supreme Court noted that more than 50 IT professionals from its own team were involved in the project to restore access to the network , systems and backups , as well as to strengthen cybersecurity regulations . Another 50 professionals from eight technology companies , including Microsoft , Atos and Redbelt Security, also participated in the process, wanting to support the restoration work.
However, the President of the STJ pointed out that there are still challenges to overcome, including the revision of policies, technological architecture and adaptation to the General Data Protection Regulations, which came into force last September. The President also added that the process of restructuring and improving security at the STJ will be continuously improved, stressing that there is unconditional support from the Court for increasing the level of information security. Finally, the President underlined that this is an institutional advantage, which the Court will continue to exercise.
