Moncloa has activated an urgent reinforcement of its cybersecurity after the wave of hacks that left exposed personal data of high-ranking officials of the Government, the Public Prosecutor's Office, and the intelligence services. The response has already been articulated through a public contract with execution planned for April and focused on shielding the network of the Presidency of the Government.
The plan foresees the comprehensive renewal of firewalls and activity monitoring systems in an infrastructure that the Presidency's own Security Department considers outdated. That department admits that currently the system relies on "two firewalls in cluster and a log analyzer" that require immediate replacement.
Renewal of the network of Presidency
The contract contemplates the acquisition of new equipment and the reinforcement of the system for recording and analyzing digital activity during a period of five years. The budget amounts to around 174,000 euros with taxes included and also incorporates guarantees of up to five years.
The new firewalls must integrate intrusion prevention systems, malware protection, application control, web traffic filtering, and antispam services. To that will be added a log analysis system to centralize and examine in real time all the activity that crosses the Presidency's network.
The file also establishes the figure of a technical manager as a single interlocutor, responsible for supervising the correct execution of the service. The entire contract has been designed with obligations aligned with the National Security Scheme.
Sensitive data disseminated on the internet
The measure comes after mobile phones, private addresses and email addresses linked to the Prime Minister and several ministers were disseminated online. Among those affected are Pedro Sánchez, Yolanda Díaz, María Jesús Montero, Félix Bolaños and Esperanza Casteleiro.
The investigation into this leak remains open and is in the hands of the General Information Commissariat. In the police sphere, the dissemination is attributed to an alleged repeat user who had already published days before data related to the National Police and the Civil Guard.
Open hypothesis on the origin of the leak
The investigators' line of work points to a combination of system breaches and possible failures in the management of data exposed in digital services. For now, there is no record of a closure of the investigation nor a definitive resolution about the exact origin of the leak.
The case is reminiscent of an action carried out months ago in the Canary Islands, where two young people were arrested for disseminating personal information of public officials and political representatives. In that investigation, it was also maintained that part of the benefits obtained would have been channeled through cryptocurrencies.
With this reinforcement, the Presidency seeks to immediately raise the capacity for detection and containment against new intrusions at a particularly sensitive moment, with a public exposure of data that has affected some of the main figures of the Executive and of the State apparatus.