
Brazilian Ministry of Health suffers cyberattack and COVID-19 vaccination data vanishes
Hackers claimed to have copied and deleted 50 TB worth of data from internal systems.
Websites under Brazil's Ministry of Health (MoH) have suffered a major ransomware attack that resulted in the unavailability of COVID-19 vaccination data of millions of citizens.
Following that attack that took place at around 1 am today, all of MoH's websites including ConecteSUS, which tracks the trajectory of citizens in the public healthcare system, became unavailable. This includes the COVID-19 digital vaccination certificate, which is available via the ConecteSUS app.
According to a message left by the Lapsus$ Group, which has claimed responsibility for the attack, some 50 TB worth of data has been extracted from the MoH's systems and subsequently deleted. "Contact us if you want the data returned", the message said, alongside contact details for the authors of the attack.
Just before 7 am, the images with the message left by the hackers were removed, but the websites remained unavailable.
Following the attack, Brazilian health minister Marcelo Queiroga said his department holds a backup of the data allegedly copied and erased from the national health service's databases. The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) said it is following up on the case.
ANPD said the Ministry of Health was notified to provide clarifications on the case, as determined by the country's General Data Protection Regulations. It added Institutional Security Office and the Federal Police will be contacted to cooperate with the investigation and inspection on the attack.
The incident follows a previous attack on the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) in September. The attack was focused on the healthcare declaration for travelers, compulsory for individuals entering Brazil via airports.
Following the attack, Brazilian health minister Marcelo Queiroga said his department holds a backup of the data allegedly copied and erased from the national health service's databases. The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) said it is following up on the case.

Brazilian Ministry of Health suffers cyberattack and COVID-19 vaccination data vanishes
Hackers claimed to have copied and deleted 50TB worth of data from internal systems.
