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Hackers invade the National Health System and the repercussion exposes the fragility of a society without proper information security

March 2, 2022

Put: Leonardo Neri

The Ministry of Health and ConecteSUS, an application that provides proof of vaccination against COVID-19, suffered a cyber attack on December 10, 2021, affecting systems that report cases of the disease. 

The website's downfall caused a crisis in much of the country. In Salvador, for example, passengers were unable to board a bus station due to the need for proof of vaccination. In Acre, those who did not have physical proof and had to rely on the digital system were unable to get their second dose.  

In a statement, the Federal Police and the Institutional Security Office have already been contacted, stating that no data will be lost. Let's see: “This data will not be lost, the Ministry of Health has all the data, it is just a matter of recovering this data and making it available to society” quoted Marcelo Queiroga. 

The Minister of Health confirmed the commitment of the following systems to resolve the imbroglio: e-SUS; SI-PNI; ConecteSUS (Responsible for issuing the National Covid-19 Vaccination Certificate and the National Digital Vaccination Card).  

One of the biggest doubts among the population is about the authorship of these attacks, which apparently was resolved when the group “Lapsus$ Group” assumed criminal responsibility. 

Furthermore, chaos has been created by the difficulty people have in confirming their vaccination data. The recommendation is to bring physical proof of vaccination to anyone who has to take a residual dose of the vaccine until the situation is regularized. 

Furthermore, one of the biggest concerns is for people who want to enter the country. The Federal Government has chosen to suspend the need for proof until ConecteSUS is normalized.  

In short, this is yet another case that demonstrates the impact of vulnerability on information security and data protection systems, which has a direct impact on the analysis of personal data of practically an entire society, bringing to light that if the issue of privacy is not treated with the utmost priority by public and private companies, we may have in this area the great chaotic peak of the modern world. 

Source: https://g1.globo.com/saude/noticia/2021/12/10/conecte-sus-ministerio-da-saude-vacinacao-covid-fora-do-ar-o-que-se-sabe.ghtml 

 

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