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The new Computer Security Incident Response Team of Costa Rica (CSIRT-CR) was formally inaugurated last Friday with an announcement in La Gaceta, the official government publication. On that same day, members of CSIRT-CR responded to an attack on the information systems of the National Assembly.
According to a report by digital newspaper El Pais, the Executive Director of the National Assembly was notified by CSIRT-CR about the attack. Don Antonio Ayales explained to the press that:
“[CSIRT-CR] detected that Anonymous was breaking into the system from outside of the country, so I sent technicians to investigate. The attacks were so strong that we were forced to shut down our network on Friday and Saturday.”
The Costa Rica chapter of the Anonymous collective had previously announced and scheduled OpFiscal for April 13. An article in The Costa Rica Star had touched on the topic before, explaining that the collective was calling on Ticos opposed to the Fiscal Reform Plan to voice their displeasure by joining in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack on government networks as an act of civil disobedience.
Anonymous later reconsidered its strategy in light of a high court ruling on the Fiscal Reform Plan that deemed it unconstitutional. At around 4:30 on April 13th, however, the Twitter account of Anonymous in Costa Rica asked supporters to join them in a protest. Their messages contained a clarification: “This is only a protest, since the Fiscal Reform Plan is now at zero.”
At 7:42 pm, Anonymous called a stop. Their last message on that day was “Thanks for your support. Casa Presidencial down, National Assembly – down?” The collective did not mention CSIRT-CR.
Just a few weeks ago, the Ministry of Science and Technology (Spanish acronym: MICIT) announced the creation of the CSIRT-CR and the involvement of several stakeholders from the government and private enterprises. The fact that the new cybercrime center was formed, enacted, and launched into action so quickly underscores the need for initiatives that can protect information networks from intrusions and attacks.
