Last Monday (31), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that the current federal management, headed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT), has taken a hacker action against the Paraguayan government, to obtain data related to the bilateral negotiation of the Itaipu hydroelectric plant.
This is because, according to the UOL calculation, an operation aimed at the invasion of computers in Paraguay was created at the end of the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and maintained at the beginning of the current management through the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin).
A CNN in the context of the “parallel abin” inquiry, when servers pointed to the hacker action against Paraguay.
After the news, the Paraguayan Foreign Minister, but there is no evidence that any of them came from Brazil.
Understand the conflicts that involve Itaipu
The Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant is located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, symbolizing cooperation between the two countries.
In 1973, the two signed the “Itaipu Treaty”, which established the rules for the construction of the plant. Among them was the determination that Brazil and Paraguay should receive equally the generated energy.
More than fifty years later, in February this year,, which concerns the financial conditions of hydroelectric power commercialization, ie paid tariffs.
This agreement, of April 16, 2024.
On this occasion, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry stated that it was also agreed that Paraguay could sell surplus energy to Brazil, directly and vying for market with Brazilian generators. The goal, with this, was that the Paraguayan government could have more autonomy to sell energy, since it does not completely use the half it has.
The invasion, cited by UOL and confirmed by the CNNit would have happened a few months before the government closed this new agreement on the amounts paid.
According to the deponents who reported this operation to the PF, ABIN members would have used the Cobalt Strike program to break into computer devices from the neighboring country.
This tool is usually used for intrusion on computers. Still according to the servers, these attacks did not depart from Brazil. The action was made from Chile and Panama, from the installation of virtual users in these locations.
The federal government reiterated, last Monday, the “commitment to respect and transparent dialogue as fundamental elements in diplomatic relations with Paraguay and all its partners in the region and in the world”.
They also claimed that the operation, in question, was authorized in June 2022, but made it ineffective by the then interim director of ABIN on March 27, 2023.
