The attackers hijacked about 7,700 GB, equivalent to 10 years of information. The amount in Bitcoin requested as a ransom has not yet been determined.

At least 7,700 GB of information from the government of the province of San Luis, in Argentina, was hijacked. The attack on the Data Center, which houses information about the entity, was through a ransomware modality, a type of virus that hijacks data by using encryption and requests a ransom in Bitcoin for their release.

The Minister of Science and Technology of the province, Alicia Bañuelos, said that the attack was conducted on November 25^th. During an interview recently, Bañuelos explained that it has already been possible to restore 90% of the data encrypted by the virus.

Even though the amount in Bitcoin requested by the attackers requested in exchange for the hijacked data has not yet been determined, it is said that the ransom could be around 0.5 and 50 BTC. At the time of writing this article, this figure goes from USD 3,791 to USD 379,100, according to the current price of Bitcoin in market data.

Bañuelos explained that Argentina was not willing to pay the aforementioned amount of Bitcoin, since they are not certain that this will guarantee that they will recover their data. On the other hand, it would imply providing resources for future attacks on cybercriminals.

Total False Recovery

Last November 28^th, the minister of the province stated that they believed to have achieved total data recovery. However, the process failed and they still cannot decrypt all the files of this year. There are still a total of 350 GB of information that they still cannot recover.

Being disks with so much information, the deadline to recover the data could even reach 15 days, according to the minister. In fact, she said that it had taken them a total of 40 hours to understand that they had failed to recover those remaining 350 GB.

Although Bañuelos believes that there is little material to recover, considering that the attack affected 7,700 GB of information, she admits that the processes related to current files are now paralyzed.

The data recovery process initially involved removing the virus from the system, and then proceeded with decrypting the files. These affected files were not removed by the attackers to the disks of the Data Center, but were encrypted to prevent their access by the organization.

Threat of Ransomware on the Rise

During 2019, the threat of ransomware attacks has been increasing. For the first quarter of the year alone, the amount of ransom in the face of such attacks had risen by 90%, according to a report published by the company Coveware.

That study also reflected a diversification in the types of ransomware. In this regard, the firm said that attacks by this route were becoming more sophisticated as the attackers resorted to more expensive models for hijacking data. During that time, not only ransoms had increased, but also the average length of the attacks.

In addition, in mid-October, a report by the European police, Europol, highlighted an alert on at least 25 types of ransomware. The cybercrime study by the police organization also endorses the sophistication that Coveware was already advancing.

Among the most recent attacks, the most prominent is the one perpetrated against Spanish radio networks and consulting companies. Mexican state oil company, Pemex, was also affected by an attack of this kind, in which the attackers demanded USD 5,000,000 in Bitcoin.

By Willmen Blanco

More than 2 million dollars in losses have been registered in the school feeding program in 2018, according to data from the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia.

To prevent corruption and counteract the diversion of funds in its school feeding program, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia announced there is a project is underway that will allow using blockchain technology to improve transparency levels in the allocation of funds by the state for the school canteen program.

To reduce the theft of funds to be spent in the social program, the state entity itself is creating a proposal for an invention for the National University of Colombia (UNAL), which they hope will involve a blockchain network that helps minimize theft. This news was announced by the Blockchain leader at the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution of Colombia, Mauricio Tovar.

Tovar said, during an interview with a local news portal, that the platform will use a protocol based on the Ethereum network and that it is currently in its final stages to be completed. Some performance tests are expected to be executed soon. He also added that project representatives believe that their platform can be set up for the first quarter of next year. This would benefit the program promptly.

Tovar added that this project had the participation of many national and international entities, which collaborated to speed up the anti-corruption tool.

“The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia leads the project, with funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), articulates the Fourth Industrial Revolution Centers of San Francisco (USA) and Colombia. The execution is in charge of the National University of Colombia. The collaborating entities are the Medellin City Hall, Colombia Compra Eficiente, the University of Berkeley, Confecamaras and Quantstamp”.

When referring to the benefits that the use of a tool like this would bring to the prosecutor’s office, Tovar added that it would ensure almost 100 % the use of the information in the bidding processes. It would also incorporate the use of Smart Contracts, which would help automate any process and transaction. An option that promotes the active participation of citizens to avoid possible cases of corruption and alert the authorities would also be added.

It should be noted that the entire new system to control the processes for the food program will be published in a domain that can be accessible to anyone, but in a safe and immutable way, without risks of being violated.

Millionaire Corruption in the School Feeding Program

According to some local media, in 2018 around 8.4 billion pesos have been lost in the School Feeding program as a result of corruption; this is equivalent to 2.4 million US dollars. Among the items that are running out of funds, the overbilling of food, delivery of products in poor condition and poor handling of money destined for schools run by the Colombian state are detailed.

During that year, the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, announced in September 2018 that he would adopt strong measures to stop the flight of resources, Amon these measures are the best financing processes, targeting areas of attention, smart contracting, among others. In this way, it is announced that now blockchain technology would complement these measures that would help prevent corruption.

Duque has stated on several occasions that he is committed to the use of blockchain in the country’s financial processes, which also demonstrates that this technology may also have other applications in administrative sectors of public jurisdiction.

“We are committed to blockchain technology defining Colombia, not only in the regional financial system, but also allowing us to be the leaders in mobile banking and digital banking in Latin America”, said the president of Colombia last April 2018.

Checking public data, Colombia’s school feeding program benefits more than 5.6 million children across the country, during the school period that lasts approximately 180 days a year.

By Maria Rodriguez

Hong Kong’s and Thailand’s financial authorities explore payments recorded on a blockchain. The development focuses on optimizing cross-border transfers and payments between banks.

The financial authorities of Hong Kong and Thailand are prepared to launch a two-tier digital token, as part of the process of creating a prototype of cross-border transfer of funds between the two economies using FinTech.

According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the first stage of the prototype, known as the LionRock-Inthanon Project, implies issuing a token through the Hong Kong banks involved in the pilot program. The second stage implies that banks distribute tokens to corporate customers to arrange wholesale payments with other banks or companies.

The two-tier system, comparable to the one developed by the People’s Bank of China, is a step in the LionRock-Inthanon project, which was established last November based on collaboration between the HKMA and the Bank of Thailand. The use of a blockchain-backed token is expected to accelerate the settlement of currencies between the two economies, from USD 19.6 billion in bilateral stores last year, giving companies and banks more competitive exchange rates for the Hong Kong dollar and the Thai baht.

HKMA Executive Director Edmond Lau explained that this system would also be used differently from the cryptocurrency being developed in China, which focuses on replacing coins and banknotes in circulation to support retail transactions. He said that the LionRock project focuses on optimizing cross-border transfers and payments between banks and companies.

During a panel discussion on financial technology held in Hong Kong last November, Lau commented that the possibility of issuing a central bank cryptocurrency for retail purposes in Hong Kong is limited, since they have many retail payment services, including credit cards and debit cards, among others.

Lau said that the use of blockchain technology allows the HKMA cross-border payment platform, through the “depositary receipt route network,” to help companies in both Hong Kong and Thailand settle wholesale payments between them as the properties of a blockchain overcome the limitations of the banking model, which involves multiple numbers of intermediaries, thus resulting in payment delays.

The executive added that the Bank of Thailand has also been researching its own cryptocurrency through the Inthanon Project, which includes banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, and several other Thai banks such as Kasikorn Bank and Krungthai Bank.

Lau said that HKMA and the Bank of Thailand will announce more details about the test results during the first quarter of 2020.

The LionRock-Inthanon Project, which was signed last November between HKMA and the Bank of Thailand, is aimed at studying such cross-border payments, seeking to facilitate transactions in HK dollars and Thai baht between banks in Hong Kong and Thailand. This project is an extension of a broad agreement signed last May.

Currently, Hong Kong Interbank Clearing, which is an interbank compensation fund owned by the HKMA and the Hong Kong Banking Association, offers a payment-versus-payment settlement in Baht, but is limited only to the exchange of US dollars. This exchange mechanism ensures that the transfer of one currency only occurs simultaneously with one of the other currencies, which will be irrevocable.

By Willmen Blanco

Rappi, one of the most important electronic purchasing companies in Latin America, evaluates using blockchain technology to innovate in its online services.

Rappi is a company known for offering online shopping services at home in many Latin American countries. Among the sales services that the company includes are electronic objects, clothing, and even cash. So the inclusion of cryptocurrency sales could be a viable option to expand its services.

During the conference of new technologies, Finno Summit Miami 2019, held in Florida, in the United States, last December 3^rd and 4^th, some representatives of Visa and Rappi talked about the next generation of online payments and how they see the financial services of the future.

In this regard, Juan Pablo Ortega, who was Rappi’s representative rapporteur, commented that new technologies must be used to accelerate the development of the industry. In addition to understanding the current needs of customers is vital to the growth of the company.

Explaining that it is necessary to understand social changes to adapt to companies and their services, he took the opportunity to add that the current market requires offering optimal service to sell their products and the extra services that are now linked to new products. So the use of blockchain technology is considered to solve many of these current problems.

The Use of User’s Opinion to Improve Their Services

Rappi has been one of those companies that have managed to optimize their services through the help of its customers. Using the opinion when receiving a package, or paying special attention to complaints, they have been able to determine the risks in the route of the product from the store to the customer improve its transfer and avoid losses.

Products that come from restaurants are the ones with the highest risk and the greatest care they should take to their destination. This is why the company has even talked with suppliers of packaging and restaurants to improve transport packaging.

Using blockchain technology could accelerate these investigations by automating complaints and opinions and classifying it into a smart, fast and secure network.

Cryptocurrencies and Rappi for the Future

During Ortega’s speech at the conference, he was asked about possible innovations for 2020. As an answer, he said he felt interested in looking for possible technological alternatives for his processes.

Rappi launched a few weeks ago a survey for its clients in which the possible introduction to the sale of Bitcoin on its platform could be evaluated. It was possible to measure whether users would be interested in buying BTCs, in addition to how much money they would spend on an investment. They were also asked if they think the cryptocurrency is safe, and if they have bought BTC before.

The company has proven competent in the sale of any product or service, so it would not be a surprise if the platform introduces a crypto service in the future.

By María Rodríguez

Four Master’s programs will be certified in an alliance with Ibermática. This is a second phase of the project after validating graduate degrees in February.

It was reported that Universidad San Pablo CEU in Spain is expanding the certification of its university degrees, by applying authentication to its postgraduate diplomas in a blockchain. From the next course, the educational institution will begin to validate official degrees of four university master’s programs.

The project of the university is an alliance with the Spanish startup Ibermática, with which they have worked in the past to offer greater security for the issuance of its graduates’ certificates. The university confirmed the information disclosed by local media through its Twitter account, saying that it certifies official postgraduate degrees with blockchain technology.

The use of blockchains at the university is framed under the digital transformation program, which also covers the application of artificial intelligence and voice assistant technology. It is worth mentioning that a request for comments from Ibermática and Universidad San Pablo CEU has not yet been answered.

Last February, the universities San Pablo CEU (in Madrid), Abat Oliba CEU (in Barcelona) ​​and Cardenal Herrera CEU (in Valencia) jointly announced that they would begin using blockchains, an original Bitcoin technology, as a digital system to certify their degrees. At that time, it was reported that they would use a platform called chainTalent, which would work with Hyperledger Fabric technology.

Both Ibermática and the institutions that belong to the Center for University Studies (CEU) are part of Alastria, a Spanish consortium focused on providing corporate services with blockchain technology.

Blockchain and University Sector

The field of university degree certification is another area with potential for the application of blockchain or distributed accounting technology (DLT), a protocol linked mostly to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The interest that the educational institutions have in validating their diplomas is to ensure that the information issued is traceable and verifiable and that the certificate is proven to be authentic. They intend to eliminate the risk of document forgery.

This trend among universities has been recorded since 2018 when the educational institutions observed the potential for the protection of students’ identity, records, and credentials. The pioneering universities in this field were the University of Nicosia, in Cyprus, and the Holberton School, in the United States.

Other Spanish universities such as the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) and the Higher Institute for Internet Development (ISDI) already issue certified degrees using blockchain-focused technology, which speaks of the momentum that it has experienced in the European country.

Regarding Latin America, the National University of Colombia announced last February that it would test the certification of its degrees in the Ethereum network, while the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico announced that it would digitally certify its degrees in the IBM blockchain network.

It should be remembered that distributed accounting technology or blockchain is a protocol initially presented with Bitcoin that allows the completion of any transaction between two or more people but without the participation of third parties or central trusted entities.

By Willmen Blanco

The deactivated sites are registered with domain names DNS from Europe. EURid would have confirmed that at least 5 OneCoin-related websites are under legal investigation.

It was reported that several websites registered with European domain names, which are related to the OneCoin scheme, were disconnected last Tuesday, December 3^rd, by the European domain registry EURid. The information on the deactivation was released by the information portal Behind MLM (Multi-Level Marketing).

According to the report, the domains registered for the OneCoin Foundation and the OneCoin Academy were suspended as part of a “legal investigation.” The process would be conducted by EURid, which is the non-profit institution accredited by the European Commission for the registration and management of the top-level domain name system (DNS) on the Internet, with the extension .eu.

It was stated that the two DNS servers that were disabled on Tuesday corresponding the websites “oneacademy.eu” and “oneworldfoundation.eu,” which have joined the main OneCoin site, “onecoin.eu”. It should be noted that the latter was taken offline last December 1^st, according to the news portal.

In several countries, OneCoin has been classified as a pyramid or Ponzi scam scheme. The company has offered itself as a cryptocurrency trading and exchange service provider, with a private blockchain in which its ONE token can supposedly be mined. However, only users who participate in the development of the business of OneLife, a related network marketing company, would have access to the token for the direct sale of educational packages on cryptocurrencies and financial management.

In the report, it is noted that OneCoin Academy is a website created by OneCoin so that it would meet the premise of the educational component of its Ponzi scheme. Besides, the One World Foundation is said to have been a charity created by Ruja Ignatova, the founder of OneCoin. It is relevant to mention that the current status of the websites of both organizations is “server hold.”

EURid reported that other websites related to OneCoin, such as DealShaker and One Pay, are also under investigation. However, the deactivation of these websites has aroused expectations about the destination “onelife.eu,” which is the website used to track OneCoin affiliate investment.

Last September, a report was made on a BBC documentary about Ruja Ignatova, in which it is stated that the founder of OneCoin had persuaded investors from 175 countries and raised GBP 4 billion, only to then disappear mysteriously. The victims of this scam have been told to react if they do not want to lose their investment.

On November 14^th, it became known that Konstantin Ignatova, the brother of Ruja Ignatova, had pled guilty to several charges, including money laundering and fraud through OneCoin, in a trial that he is facing in the United States. To make matters even worse, OneCoin’s lawyer, Mark Scott, was also found guilty in a New York court for laundering USD 400 million and committing bank fraud about the company, which was typified as a “massive international fraud scheme.”

By Willmen Blanco