Ransomware attack leaves Costa Rica unable to pay taxes

Costa Ricans were unable to pay taxes by hand Monday after a ransomware attack took over the country's online tax collection system.

Several Costa Rican government agencies, including its Ministry of Finance, are severely hampered after an international cybercriminal gang called Conti locked them in April and demanded a ransom payment to make them operable again. President Rodrigo Chaves, the country's new leader, declared a state of emergency after he was sworn in shortly after being sworn in.

In recent years, cybercriminals have strategically attacked businesses and smaller government organizations at times when they thought a shutdown would come at a high cost in order to incentivize victims to pay.

In the U.S., ransomware attacks cost more than $600 million, according to cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. The attack on Costa Rica's government is the largest known criminal ransomware attack to date against one country s government.

Costa Ricans usually pay taxes through an online system, which is not functional with the Ministry of Finance networks down. The country has delayed some tax deadlines until August because of the attack. It is still collecting a monthly value-added tax on sales and imports.

With no option to pay the VAT online, the Ministry of Finance has instructed citizens to download a program called EDDI 7, which only works on Windows operating systems, fill in their tax information, print out a form and physically take it to a government-approved bank to pay their taxes.

The system has led to a number of problems, such as customers waiting at banks for hours to pay on Monday, according to El Financiero, a Costa Rican financial newspaper.

Since he only uses Mac computers at his office, he had to take his business filings home to use the program on his home computer, and then spend the day traveling to and from an approved bank because his local one wasn't authorized to collect the VAT.

Vargas said in a direct message to NBC News that the whole country is trying to pay taxes at the same time. It is not a problem to go to a bank. Vargas said that the EDDI 7 app is counterintuitive.

The app looks like a program from more than 20 years ago, he said.

After the attack on Costa Rica, the US State Department offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to Conti leaders, with estimated costs as high as 100 million euros $105 million being offered by one of the most notorious cybercriminal gangs.

Chaves said that we are at war and that is not an exaggeration. People in the country are collaborating with Conti.