MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Extent of ransomware attack in Paraguay downplayed

Tigo Business assured that key services such as internet, telephone, and the Tigo Money platform were not affected by the incident

Paraguayan authorities Monday downplayed the importance of the ransomware attack by the Black Hunt group against the Armed Forces' computer systems that reportedly took place Sunday and argued there was no such breach.

See also: Ransomware attack hits Paraguayan Armed Forces?

Colonel Alfredo Ramírez said in a radio interview that the alert issued on Sunday through a bulletin of the General Directorate of Information Technology and Communication of the Armed Forces was not triggered by any attack on their monitors.

He insisted the main victim of this attack was the company Tigo Business, one of the main internet service providers in Paraguay, whose backup systems, web pages, emails, and cloud storage were allegedly compromised.

Meanwhile, Tigo Business Paraguay issued a statement according to which on Jan. 4, the company's infrastructure suffered a security incident that affected the normal provision of some specific services aimed at a limited group of customers in the corporate segment.

Tigo regretted the impact caused to its customers and strongly denied all other press reports: “Unfortunately, people and organizations outside the company and without knowledge about the case have been spreading false information about the situation,” the company said. It also denied the accuracy of the number of customers affected, the identity of the attacker, and the extent of the incident's impact. Tigo urged Paraguayans to disregard any information that does not come directly from the company, stressing the importance of obtaining official and verified data.

In addition, Tigo stressed that much of the information was strictly confidential and private to the affected companies, due to which they were unable to provide any additional details.

Tigo Business assured that key services such as internet, telephone, and the Tigo Money platform were not affected by the incident. The provider also pledged to continue working closely with the relevant authorities in the investigation of the incident and the identification of those responsible.