Guacamaya data hack exposes AMLO’s government cyber-vulnerability

A group of activists and specialists from Central and South American countries known as “Guacamaya hackers”, penetrated the systems and databases of the Secretary of National Defense SEDENA, making public allegedly “confidential” information.

A major hack into classified AMLO’s government information in Mexico, including thousands of emails from the armed forces, exposed the country’s vulnerability to cyberattacks due to under-investment and poor technological preparedness, experts said on Friday, September 30th.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed on Friday the Defense Ministry had suffered a hack that revealed details about his heart condition – a form of angina – as well as information on criminal figures, transcripts of communications, and the monitoring of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

A group called “Guacamaya” – or “macaw” in Spanish – claimed responsibility for the hack and said on its website it had accessed six terabytes of data.

• Guacamaya infiltrates the systems and makes public the “confidential” information of what they call “entities of terror”.
• Apparently, they operate in Mexico, Peru, Salvador, Chile, and Colombia and invited the peoples of the Abya Yala (as they call the American Continent) to unite against the “entities of terror”.
• Guacamaya hacks what they call “systems of repression, domination, and enslavement that dominate people”,
• They say they want to help the people to find a way to free themselves from “state terrorism”.
• (INFOBAE)

In Latin America, Mexico ranks as the country most targeted by cyberattacks in public and private sectors combined, several studies have shown.

Mexican oil company Pemex, National Lottery and National Transparency Platform have been hit by cyberattacks in recent years.

Although Mexico’s government has steadily devoted more resources to cybersecurity, the investment is not enough compared to what is needed to ward off attacks, experts said.

TYT Newsroom