Tag Archive for: México

Hacking revelations put Mexico military on defensive

/in


Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador attends an independence day military parade – Copyright AFP Richard Pierrin

Samir Tounsi with Paulina Abramovich in Santiago and Juan Sebastian Serrano in Bogota

Leaks from a shadowy group of hackers targeting secret files held by the armed forces of several Latin American nations have fueled controversy in Mexico about the military’s growing power.

A trove of sensitive information was stolen from the Mexican defense ministry by the collective called Guacamaya, which has also claimed cyberattacks in Chile, Colombia and Peru.

“Their objectives are more political than economic,” said Diego Macor, a cyber-security expert at US technology giant IBM in Chile, who describes members of the network as “hacker-activists.”

The leaks revealed that the Mexican army continued to use Pegasus spyware developed by Israeli firm NSO Group after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in 2018, according to an investigation by the Network in Defense of Digital Rights and its partners.

The targets included journalists and a human rights activist, according to the probe, which was assisted by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.

The army insisted that it had only used spyware to fight organized crime.

The hack also left Mexico’s military facing allegations that some of its members have links to drug cartels, and that it engineered a contentious security reform giving it control of the National Guard, which was previously under civilian command.

Two soldiers sold grenades, other weapons and tactical equipment to drug cartel members, according to analysis of the files by the civil society group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity.

The Mexican and Peruvian militaries also allegedly monitored civil society organizations such as Amnesty International, which condemned their actions as “unacceptable.”

“The undue monitoring of civil society organizations identified in the Guacamaya collective leaks is an example of the hostile context in which we work as organizations defending human rights in the Americas,” said Amnesty regional director Erika Guevara-Rosas.

“Instead of monitoring the activities of civil society…

Source…

The UK helps entrepreneurs develop innovative financial solutions in Mexico

/in


In Mexico, important gaps in financial inclusion mean only 68% of adults use at least one financial product, even though internet access is at 75.6%. The UK’s Financial Services Programme sponsored the Sandbox Challenge (SC), which helped increase financial inclusion in Mexico. It did this by helping Fintech entrepreneurs develop their offerings of digital and innovative financial solutions. The second edition of the SC initiative attracted 200 participants from the United States, Taiwan, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador.

To help SC winners develop their business models, they obtained bespoke support covering legal advice, business-consulting mentoring, financial modelling, cyber security advisory, and programming services, among others.

MoneyWays, a Venezuelan firm, provides a digital alternative to the high costs associated with cross-border fund transfers, which disproportionately affect migrant workers sending money to their families back home. MoneyWays solution consists of a platform providing money transfers, remittances, prepaid cards services, and payments through a real-time wallet system. According to MoneyWays, the support they received allowed them to accelerate the development of their services and have a presence in the Mexican market, which, in turn, helped them reduce the financial burden on remittance beneficiaries.

Plataforma 9.9% devised an innovative solution to help women and informal workers access home ownership through a collective, circular form of financing. Plataforma 9.9% recognised that participating in the Financial Services Programme gave them an opportunity to build their methodology whilst at the same accessing professional advice that guided them in structuring their services to comply with official regulations.
Sagrario Gutiérrez, member of Plataforma 9.9%, shared:

We were provided with skills, tools, guidance, structure, transparency and certainty; it has been an outstanding experience to help build our solution.

Escrivan helps consumers regularise their real estate assets, which is critical given that over 50% of homeowners in Mexico currently have “irregular” property status. By resolving this issue, more consumers are able to…

Source…

How New Mexico makes sure elections are secure

/in


NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – You’ve likely heard people concerned about “voter fraud” and “election security.” But what do the terms actually mean — and how does New Mexico secure its elections?

To find out, KRQE News 13 reviewed state laws and spoke with New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver. Her office is in charge of administering the state’s elections.

What is a secure election?

“Election security involves a number of areas. It involves cyber security — making sure that our systems and networks and anything computer-related that has to do with voting voter information, casting a vote, or counting the vote are protected,” Toulouse Oliver says. “It also means physical security — making sure that the physical security of our polling locations is being addressed, that our voting machines and ballots, before and after elections, are being protected.”

“It just really encompasses a wide variety of issues,” she adds. “And it also means having laws and processes in place to ensure that only eligible voters are casting a ballot.”

In New Mexico, elections are protected by state laws, called the Election Code. These laws have been around for decades. Although there have been several amendments, or changes, over the years, the key purpose still stands.

According to N.M. Stat. § 1-1-1.1, the purpose is to “secure the secrecy of the ballot, the purity of elections and guard against the abuse of the elective franchise. It is also the purpose of the Election Code to provide for efficient administration and conduct of elections.”

Written into state law are several requirements intended to do just that. These include a requirement that elections use a paper ballot, and certified voting systems, and that “crowding or confusion” is not allowed at polling places.

Who is in charge of election security?

Broadly speaking, the secretary of state is in charge of overseeing state elections and voting. The law gives the secretary of state the ability to do things like inspect and test voting systems and keep voter records safe from theft or…

Source…

New Mexico county ‘first’ local-government ransomware victim of 2022

/in


Written by Benjamin Freed
Jan 5, 2022 | STATESCOOP

Government buildings in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, were closed to the public Wednesday in response to what appears to be the first ransomware attack this year against a local government in the United States.

Officials in the county, which includes Albuquerque, said computer systems were taken offline in response to the incident, which has not been attributed to any known malicious actor. A ransom demand has not been identified either.

The county’s websites appear to be offline as well, though the sheriff’s office and fire and rescue services were using “backup contingencies” to continue their emergency response operations, the Associated Press reported. A county spokesperson did not answer a call seeking request for comment on the situation.

While details of the Bernalillo County attack are sparse, the incident kicks off yet another year of state and local governments dealing with ransomware. Brett Callow, an analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said Bernalillo County was the first local government to disclose a ransomware attack in 2022, following a year in which 76 municipalities acknowledged being impacted by extortion malware.

That figure was actually a tick down from 2020, when Callow’s firm tallied 113 attacks against local governments, though ransomware actors may have closed strong in 2021: Officials in Crawford County, Arkansas, have spent the days since Christmas restoring operations after an attack that Allan Liska, a threat intelligence analyst at Recorded Future, said was part of a “minor surge” of ransomware attacks against local governments in the United States and internationally.

Source…