The systems of the National Water Commission have been offline for a week. The computer equipment was disconnected and the computer network that the 142 systems integrated into the network with the headquarters continue to be deactivated to avoid further damage.
The “computer security incident” was recognized last Thursday the 13th, although the attack —according to the first expert reports— could have occurred during Holy Week. The immediate consequence? That the employees of the unit in charge of Germán Martínez were “invited” to do home office… until further notice.
The measure applied to “staff whose functions are performed exclusively with computer equipment”; the rest were authorized to report to the work centers with the express prohibition of not turning on the devices, according to the indications of José Antonio Zamora Gayosso, deputy general director of administration. Even the guards that were implemented to offer services to the public, while this contingency lasts.
The head of the area, Alejandra Icela Martínez Rodríguez, reported the incident to the National Digital Strategy Coordination, and ordered the deployment of information technology management personnel to mitigate this computer attack, initially attributed to a “black campaign” against said official, whose masterminds would be businessmen affected by the cancellation of concessions and contracts.
Conagua’s central offices —despite having suffered a major fire three years ago— house a data center, which hosts the Conagua online platform. There are no precise reports regarding the safeguarding of this processing system or the functionality of the Public Registry of Water Rights.
The deficiencies in the information security processes in Conagua have extended over a decade, according to the reports of the Public Account of the Superior Audit of the Federation. This decentralized body, attached to Semarnat, spent 6,000 million pesos between 2014 and 2018 on information systems and technological infrastructures.
The University of Colima was left as provider of the comprehensive services required by the General Coordination of the National Meteorological Service, while the firm INNDOT won the contract to display the weather forecast by municipality through the web and mobile application; Indra was contracted to provide the service of administrative simplification and digital integration of electronic procedures and Theos and Mainbit were in charge of personal computing services. The validity of these contracts was extended until 2019, while Blanca Jiménez Cisneros was in charge of the unit.
The republican austerity included the cancellation of the processes to acquire new computer equipment in the federal dependencies, which forced to extend the multi-year contracts signed during the previous administration, but also to process sensitive information with outdated software, pirated licenses and without programs of protection.
The coordination of the National Digital Strategy has not been able to stop cyber attacks. Petróleos Mexicanos was under siege by hackers and in the middle of last year, they also took down the systems of the Infrastructure Secretariat… to stop the spread of the computer virus.
A technically debatable decision, which prevented information leaks… but made it necessary to discard all the computers at the central headquarters and the delegations of the agency in the interior of the republic.
