Govt agency in Dominican Republic hit by Quantum ransomware attack

The Dominican Republic's Instituto Agrario Dominicano has been hit by a Quantum ransomware attack that encrypted multiple systems and workstations throughout the government agency.

The Instituto Agrario Dominicano (IAD) is part of the Ministry of Agriculture and is responsible for executing Agrarian Reform programs in the country.

Local media reports that the cyber security incident occurred on Aug 18, which has impacted the agency's operation.

Unfortunately, the information was totally compromised, because the databases, applications, emails, were affected.

The National Cybersecurity Center (CNCS), which has been assisting the agency recover from the attack, reported that the IP addresses of the hackers were from the U.S. and Russia.

The Quantum ransomware group was behind the incident, which initially demanded a $650,000 redemption from the agency.

The operators claimed to have stolen over 1TB of data and threatened to release it if IAD did not pay a ransom publicly.

The other day, the RansomEXX ransomware group claimed responsibility for the hacker attack against Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP).