Mexico's president says government is investigating reported ransomware hack of legal affairs office

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Wednesday that the government is investigating an alleged ransomware hack of her administration’s legal affairs office after what appeared to be samples of personal information from a database of government employees were posted online.

The website Cybernews said a group called Ransomhub had posted a sample of apparently hacked government files on the dark web. Ransomhub is reportedly giving the government 10 days to pay an undisclosed sum or it will make public about 313 gigbytes of files.

Such hacking attacks usually involve penetrating government or corporate information systems and either blocking access to sensitive files or threatening make them public through file “dumps” on the internet, unless a ransom is paid.

Asked about the reported hacking at her morning press briefing, President Claudia Sheinbaum said, “Today they are going to send me a report on the supposed hacking.”

Ransomhub claimed the office targeted in the attacks had government contracts, insurance and financial information. Known as the presidential legal counsel, the office handles many of the federal government's non-criminal legal matters.

The sample of hacked files posted appears to be part of a government employee database with personal information.

It would not be the first time the office of Mexico’s presidency has suffered a hack of sensitive information. In January, someone leaked the personal information of 263 journalists who had signed up to cover presidential activities.

In that case, officials at the president's press office later said the information appeared to have been downloaded using the password of a former employee.