Controversial hacktivists may have prompted El Salvador's censorship of Telegram

Hackers offer insights in exclusive interview

Written by
Abigail Paz
Read this post in English
Posted 10 July 2024 6:02 GMT

The president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has become the face of technological progress in Central America, despite relentless cyberattacks against Salvadoran public institutions that have resulted in the data of millions of citizens being compromised.

In 2021, Bukele impressed international onlookers by making Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador and in 2024, he announced Google’s new office in the country, promising to digitize the educational and healthcare sectors. However, there has been no public acknowledgment of over a dozen data breaches against public infrastructure throughout April and June of 2024 alone.

According to researchers, El Salvador continues to fall short of basic cybersecurity compliance standards and regulations, preventing any affected civilians from mitigating the potential risks they face.

In the beginning of April 2024, local media La Prensa Gráfica reported that two new data breaches occurred within a week. The public release of 5.1 million Salvadoran personal identification numbers was the most significant (as it was previously paywalled), potentially impacting 80 percent of the country’s population. The disclosure of high-definition headshots containing biometric data corresponding to each citizen caused concerns about identity theft and fraud. Along with another hack that impacted the Ministry of Transportation, the breach went unacknowledged.

More:
https://globalvoices.org/2024/07/10/controversial-hacktivists-may-have-prompted-el-salvadors-censorship-of-telegram/



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