Pierluigi Paganini
June 13, 2025
Resecurity has identified 7.4 million records containing personally identifiable information (PII) of Paraguayan citizens leaked on the dark web today. Last week, cybercriminals have offered information about all citizens of Paraguay for sale, demanding $7.4 million in ransom payments, $1 per citizen. A ransomware group was extorting the entire country in what is probably one of the most significant cybersecurity incidents in the nation’s history, with a symbolic deadline – Friday, June 13, 2025.
The stolen data has been published on multiple underground forums. Interestingly, besides ZIP files containing databases, the actors also published a torrent file, enabling other Internet users to freely download citizens’ records using P2P networks. Notably, such tactics were previously used by LockBit 3.0. The group used P2P platforms to disseminate data leaks via torrent files to prevent takedowns.
Paraguay has lost data about the entire population, including their PII, which was exfiltrated from several different government information systems. Notably, in the ransom demand, the actors accuse the country’s leadership of corruption and a lack of attention to citizens’ data protection. Government of Paraguay declined to pay the ransom in the official statement, and did not share any insights on how the information about 7.5 million citizens has been stolen, bringing only vague statements. Few days before the leak publication, Twitter account of the President of Paraguay has been compromised.
The leaked data is presumably coming from the Agencia Nacional de Tránsito y Seguridad Vial de Paraguay (National Agency for Transit and Road Safety of Paraguay), the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay (Ministerio de Salud Publica y Bienestar Social) and another unnamed system storing PII. These leaks are not new in Paraguay. Notably, the newly revealed incident follows several other recent data breaches affecting Paraguay. In 2025, just a few months ago, Paraguay experienced two massive data breaches originating from public institutions. The first involved the Superior Tribunal of Electoral Justice (TSJE) and exposed information on more than 7 million people. The second affected the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Paraguay, and Itaipú, where a file containing over 17,000 records was made public, including sensitive data such as payments to public officials, salaries, full names, and ID numbers. In 2023, a data breach at the National Police exposed documents and personal data of detained individuals, including criminal records and photographs.
The actors positioned themselves as “mercenaries” – calling themselves “Cyber PMC” – and attacking government systems for profit, claimed the responsibility. It is unclear whether a foreign state sponsors the actors and if cybercriminal motives purely drive their activity. Considering the previous attacks by China, this new development confirms the growing number of cyberattacks against Paraguay. These events, with a “hack-and-leak” narrative, could be interpreted as a landmark in known cybersecurity incidents today, by size and scale, as the entire country was extorted due to a massive data breach. The profile of one of the key actors is known for several large-scale data breaches across South America, including Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador, leading to theft of millions of PII records. His motivation is not entirely clear, as the price he offers for this data is not substantial. Likely, such tactics could be employed by foreign intelligence or state-sponsored actors, masking targeted espionage operations under the guise of possible cybercrime activity to obscure attribution.
Flax Typhoon, a cyber-group linked to the Chinese state, was found to have infiltrated Paraguayan government networks last year, according to a joint statement from the Paraguayan Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies and the U.S. Embassy in Asunción. Flax Typhoon carried out an advanced persistent threat (APT), meaning a targeted and sustained cyberattack. The Chinese group utilized malware to infiltrate systems, extract sensitive information, and maintain a covert presence over extended periods. No data has been leaked for that event, and no victim organizations have been officially named as compromised.
Resecurity noted that Paraguay is the only South American country to recognize the independence of Taiwan. China considers the island nation as its territory, and has carried out a global campaign to convince other governments to do the same.
The intensity of cyberattacks and data breaches targeting Paraguay and other countries in South America is alarming. Resecurity highlights the increasing efforts of foreign threat actors to compromise government information systems and portals that store PII of citizens.
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Paraguay)
