On Monday, the new president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, who has just taken office for 10 days, announced a "war" against conti's cyber criminal gang . In April this year, the gang's blackmail software attack paralyzed the whole government agency.
In a strong statement to the media on May 16, President Chavez also said conti had associates at home and called on international allies to help.
In an interview with local media, President Chavez said: "it is no exaggeration to say that we are in a war. The war is against an international terrorist organization, which obviously has agents in Costa Rica. There are very obvious signs that people in the country are cooperating with conti".
President Chavez's declaration of war on conti was made under the extremely belligerent circumstances of the blackmail software group, which said its intention was to "overthrow the government through cyber attacks". The Costa Rican government has pressed conti to pay twice the ransom of $20 million on the original website.
During the attack, the U.S. government also provided a reward of up to $10 million to obtain information that could identify or find the main coordinator of conti group operations, and $5 million if it helped arrest any conti member.
The serious impact of conti's attack on the Costa Rican government shows that the largest extortion Software Group continues to be able to operate on a scale that can pose a threat to the nation-state and use its financial reserves to bribe authorized people to buy some of the most sensitive computer systems.
As the crisis in Costa Rica continues, more chain reactions are affecting its citizens. Chavez issued a statement that the number of government institutions affected was 27, including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of labor and social security. Chavez said that one of the effects is that the government cannot collect taxes through traditional means.