The National Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Technology (INIA-CSIC) has suffered a cybersecurity incident which has paralyzed its computer systems, according to El País. Sources indicate that the interruption has affected access to the databases and tools used by its more than 600 workers and that the origin of the problem has not yet been clarified.
When we talk about the INIA we are referring to one of the 124 institutes of the Higher Scientific Research Council (CSIC), the largest scientific organization in Spain. Although it is estimated that this is the first time that a cyberattack directly affects the INIA, the CSIC’s internal network was the victim of maneuvers by malicious Russian actors in August 2022.
Internal measures and official silence
The problems at the INIA began on November 12. That day, employees found themselves unable to access the Internet when they arrived at their jobs. At first, according to the newspaper, there was talk of a “technical problem“, although two days later it was internally recognized that the lack of connectivity was due to “a cyber attack.”
As a result of this situation, members who work on agri-food and forestry science and technology projects, among others, cannot access their research resources. At the time of writing this article, an official statement has not been published. For our part, we have written to various organizations in order to obtain more information in this regard.
National Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Technology
El País points out that the incident is being managed by the Cybersecurity Operations Center of the General State Administration (COCS), an entity that depends on the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service. From the newspaper they point out that the incident occurred with an attack by the ransomware type that affected one of the INIA devices.
As we explain in an article in WorldOfSoftware Basics, ransomware is a type of malware that blocks the infected computer. In general, cyber attackers use these types of practices to get money from their victims. These ask for a “ransom” that is generally made in cryptocurrencies in exchange for the data decryption key. Ransomware can spread over a network.
It is not clear what vector the malicious actors have used to affect the institute’s systems and it is not known exactly when everything will return to normal or if once the incident has been addressed data will be lost. For now, the official INIA website is down. Internet Archive records suggest that it became unavailable on November 11.
Images | CSIC | kjpargeter
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