The primary entity that the Ryuk virus affected was the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy. Since June, the State has hired at least seven companies to investigate the attack and fix the problems.

After a cyberattack that took place on June 9th, the government of Spain has had to pay EUR 2.1 million to remedy the consequences. However, that ransomware attack is still causing operational problems at the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.

The Spanish media El Independiente reported that Minister Yolanda Díaz has already hired six companies to solve those problems. The State has had to pay that amount of money to various companies to investigate the attack and solve the derived technical issues.

Besides the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, the hack also affected some areas of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migrations connected by computers.

Works do not upload to the system, which constantly disconnects and does not work optimally. For that reason, the employees in those two government areas are still having problems with the system at the ministry.

That situation has harmed the pay of workers and the productivity of the agency. In addition, it is a sign that ransomware attacks make it difficult to recover normal operations.

How Exactly the Hack Happened

The local newspaper El Confidencial reported that the hackers used the Ryuk virus to breach the systems of the Spanish public administration. It was the same that had disabled the State Public Employment Service in March. The input mechanism of that malware is usually an e-mail, from where it spreads to the rest of the system.

Regarding the recovery of the operability of the systems, no one knows whether the Spanish government agreed to pay the ransom. The costs of that ransomware hack were huge, but its effects have not finished yet, as there are still technical problems.

In countries like the United States, the law prohibits paying a ransom in the face of those cyberattacks. The North American nation considers that those hacks are as relevant as the matters related to terrorism.

The Expenses that the Ransomware Attack Caused

After suffering the ransomware attack, the Spanish government turned to Fujitsu Technology Solutions, which received EUR 145,893. That company would be in charge of combating possible threats to national security due to the stolen data.

Subsequently, they hired Sidertia to do a software and hardware audit for EUR 290,400. They gave EUR 67,480 to Sermicro to provide technical assistance and EUR 486,450 to Fujitsu to recover the infrastructure.

On behalf of the ministry, Yolanda Díaz contracted the Endpoint Protection service for EUR 243,188. She paid EUR 65,986 to another unspecified company to increase the security of the networks and systems.

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, José Luis Escrivá Belmonte, hired the seventh company to face operational problems. That last recruitment exceeded EUR 863,148, bringing the total to EUR 2,162,546 for the ransomware attack.

By Alexander Salazar

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