Lisbon, Oct. 11, 2024 (Lusa) - The computer network of Portugal's Agency for Administrative Modernisation (AMA) remained inaccessible to the public on Friday morning, after it was targeted by a ransomware cyberattack that caused "disruption" to services, with the National Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS) said to be providing support to the agency.

In a statement on Thursday, AMA said that it was "experiencing a disruption in its network due to a computer attack" and the CNCS "has been notified of the 'ransomware' incident that today compromised the infrastructures managed" by the agency.

According to the CNCS, the attack had a "substantial impact on the services supported by this entity, such as Authentication.Gov and Gov.ID" and its own CERT.PT department, which is charged with coordinating the response to incidents involving civil service entities, "is monitoring the incident and providing support in terms of mitigation measures and the recovery phase." 

For its part, AMA reported that "access to various digital platforms and services that can have a direct impact on the activity of various public and private organisations" was "preventively unavailable" as a result of the attack and the response to it.

"Security protocols were immediately activated to respond to this type of attack, in order to restore normal operations, and the national authorities responsible for cybercrime are also involved," said AMA, adding that any developments or new relevant developments on the subject “will be communicated immediately.”

ALU/ARO // ARO.

Lusa