Costa Rica's public health service network is now offline, after a attack hit its systems.
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Hive is a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) business, behind attacks on more than 30 organizations and has been active since at least 2021.
The country's public health agency publicly announced the attack in a statement issued on Twitter, saying that the attackers broke into its network "in the early hours of Tuesday."
While the investigation is still ongoing, the Costa Rican government agency says that information stored in the EDUS (Unified Digital Health) and SICERE (Centralized Tax-Collection System) databases was not compromised.
Employees reported being told to shut down their computers and disconnect them from networks after all printers on the government agency's network began printing automatically when the attack began.
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Some also shared videos showing stacks of dozens of printed pages filled with unusual text based on ASCII.
The service is now working to restore the affected systems and critical services, but so far it is impossible to determine how long it will take for backups of the systems to be created.
The incident comes after Costa Rica declared a state of emergency following Conti ransomware that hit multiple government agencies, including the country's Social Security Fund (CCSS).
The list of government agencies affected by Conti's subsidiaries also includes the Ministry of Finance of the country, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications, and the Social Development and Family Benefits Fund (FODESAF).
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The Conti gang demanded a ransom of 10 million dollars from the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica, which the government refused to pay.
Source: BleepingComputer
