Cybercriminals uploaded sensitive data from the Buenos Aires Supreme Court and sold it online

Cybercriminals uploaded a batch to a data buying and selling forum personal information of judges, officers and employees of the Supreme Court of the Province of Buenos Aires. There are about 15,000 records offered on a site where leakers are trafficking sensitive information packets.

“This is a lot of information on judges and officials of the highest local court. It covers 15 thousand records which include usernames, email addresses, full name, ID (or other older documents such as the Enrollment Book), keysand also IP addresses and browsers used by the user ”, explained a Clarione IT security architect Mauro Eldritch, who took over the information load.

The leakers upload test lots and put them up for sale to the highest bidder, as they did in the Renaper case in October last year, in which, through unauthorized access, a user uploaded a database with identity documents from 60,000 Argentines.

The offer is posted in what is known as free networkor on the web accessed from any browser such as Google Chrome (unlike other cases where it is loaded on the dark net).

“In these cases, a direct sale of the information lots is made to any available buyer. There is no extortion of the victim, no encryption of her files and they are not even contacted to try to “resell” them. [devolverle] the lot is simply published for sale “, clarifies the specialist to differentiate it from the cases of ransomware.

“In this particular case, the vendor claims that the leaked information was obtained ‘after completely compromising the Supreme Court of Justice website,’ which is even more concerning,” he adds. Also, the post states that managed to compromise the siteof the court of Buenos Aires.

Clarione contacted the Provincial Supreme Court and was awaiting comment.

the implications

The theft of personal data is becoming more and more frequent. Last week it was learned that cybercriminals stole data from Garrahan Pediatric Hospital and put it up for sale for $ 1,500.

Information theft has serious implications for those affected, as the sale of data such as email, mail, ID and other personal information can be used to committing crimes online on behalf of other people.

On the other hand, access codes can allow access to the institution’s internal systems or, if they have been modified, serve a use keys in other services of interested people in order to enter (since the vast majority of users repeat passwords).

In addition, the affected entity should report the incident to its employees, according to Resolution 47/2018 of the Agency for Access to Public Information (AAIP). It should notify “the nature of the information, the category of personal data concerned, the identification of the affected users and the measures taken to mitigate the incident”.

“Article 9 of the Data Protection Act (25.326) defines that the person responsible or the user of the file must take the technical measures and organizational requirements necessary to guarantee the security and confidentiality of personal datain order to avoid their adulteration, loss, consultation or unauthorized treatment, ”Daniel Monastersky, a cybercrime attorney, recalled last week from Garrahan’s leak.

The state and the risk of personal data

With this new data leak, the state adds another case of sensitive citizen data coming to light.

In 2020, the National Directorate of Migration suffered a cyber attack that published thousands of personal data of Argentine citizens.

Last year, unauthorized access managed to extract data from the Renaper and sold it to a forum for buying and selling personal data. And in January of this year, the Nation’s Senate suffered a ransomware attack that released sensitive data on Upper House workers, bills, and even fingerprints of senior officials.

The Garrahan case confirmed this tendency to overlook personal data. It involved 12 million records spread across 5.5 GB of information, including data on patients and their legal guardians (DNI, employment status, personal and work addresses and telephone numbers, medical conditions, medical coverage affiliations), information techniques on their medical treatments and their follow-up and records of medical personnel. The Garrahan confirmed the leak.

The Supreme Court of Buenos Aires joins the victims mismanagement of public information in Argentina.