Mexico City.- The National Water Commission (Conagua) suspended all its paperwork and administrative procedures until the second week of May, due to the impossibility of operating due to the hacking of its computer systems, registered on April 13.
With this, the strike will be extended to three weeks, after, initially, it was planned to resume procedures this Monday.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) today published the draft agreement of its head, María Luis Albores, to extend the suspension of procedures this week and the following, which has two non-business days, with which the procedures are now They would resume until May 8.
“On April 13, 2023, the Conagua, in its central offices, basin organizations and local directorates corresponding to its regional hydrological-administrative level, there was an affectation in its computer systems, for which reason the isolation of the networks and the servers of the same, in order to carry out the actions to restore the computer operability”, explains the agreement.
“Since the affectation in the computer systems of the Conagua by which the terms and deadlines of the matters in charge of it were suspended, it is necessary to extend the suspension for days 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 of April and May 2, 3 and 4, 2023, in order to follow up on detection, analysis and containment actions to determine the impact of the incident, and prevent the spread of the virus,” it adds.
The only areas that continue to function are those that contract for works and services.
Conagua and its basin bodies are responsible for multiple paperwork and procedures on concessions for the use of national waters, Public Registry of Water Rights, modifications and transfers of titles, attention to agricultural irrigation districts, closed seasons, and block deliveries of water to municipal operating agencies, among others.
Reforma published on April 13 that the hack affected Conagua systems in 23 states and was carried out with the Blackbite computer virus.
The hackers allegedly demanded a ransom to release institutional files that they hijacked and encrypted.
The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) indicated, on the same April 13, that it intervened, managing to contain the attack and that no major affectation was identified.
“At the request of Conagua, the General Scientific Directorate of the National Guard concluded this afternoon the containment of the cyber attack on its computer equipment,” said the SSPC.
However, now Conagua itself mentions that it has not determined the impact of the hack and that work continues to contain it.
Computer incidents have been recurring during the current government, including major hacks of Pemex and the Secretaries of National Defense and Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, as well as the cessation of operations of the Compranet platform for 17 days.
