MEXICO CITY (HPD) — The United States expressed concern Wednesday about the impact that the hacking of a large number of files from the Mexican Ministry of Defense could have on operations to combat criminal organizations and the security of personnel.
A few hours before the second meeting of the High-Level Dialogue on Security (DANS) between the United States and Mexico begins in Washington, the acting undersecretary of the office for Western Hemisphere affairs, Ricardo Zúñiga, admitted in a telephone press conference that there is concern among US authorities about the impact that the leak of a large amount of electronic communications from the Mexican Army could have on operations against organized crime.
“The protection of this information is always something that we have to work on internally, as well as with our partners,” said Zúñiga, recognizing that hacking is a phenomenon that can affect anyone.
The Mexican government confirmed at the end of last month that a large number of Sedena files were extracted by a group of hackers called Guacamaya, made up of anonymous elements.
The group would have stolen 10 terabytes of information, including emails from the armed forces of Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia and Chile, and the Salvadoran National Police.
In recent weeks, several local media have released some of the files that were stolen from Sedena, which include information on the health of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, intelligence activities and the fight against criminal groups, and the participation of the military in government projects. government.
The Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, heads the Mexican delegation that will meet on Thursday in Washington with the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the Secretary of Justice, Merrick Garland, to follow up to the topics that were addressed during the first meeting of the DANS that took place in October in Mexico City.
Speaking of the progress made in the first year of the security cooperation agreement, called the Bicentennial Framework, Zúñiga considered the new legislation and investments approved to modernize ports and customs as a success, as well as the actions adopted to disrupt arms trafficking, and the dismantling of a dozen criminal networks dedicated to the smuggling of migrants.