“Most entities already have their services re-established,” said Antonio Leitão Amaro, at the parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, where he is being heard.

According to the minister, the main services, such as Federal Revenue, Shared Services of the Ministry of Health, Social Security, Casa da Moeda and Institute of Financial Management and Justice Equipment (IGFEG), have been re-established.

Indicating that “the replacement is not being done immediately” in all services, the government official explained that one of the biggest concerns was medical prescriptions”, but “within 24 hours the physical and paper method was working”.

“The issuing of prescriptions did not stop, we were unable to use electronic prescriptions for two days,” he said, maintaining that “services are being restored little by little”.

Attack

On October 10, the infrastructure of the Agency for Administrative Modernization (AMA) was the target of a cyber attack, and the entity reported "that it was experiencing a disruption in its network due to a computer attack ('ransomware') and, therefore, access to several digital platforms and services was preventively unavailable."

Leitão Amaro informed the deputies that the cause of the incident had been identified and that “teams that carry out world-class forensic audits are in operation and hired and are working with the Portuguese authorities”.

In response to PS deputy Miguel Costa Matos, who accused the Government of a “sepulchral silence” about what is being done in relation to the attack, the minister said that there have been communications and clarifications.

“The communication protocol established for this type of event involves communication being carried out regularly in terms of services, the CNCS [National Center for Cybersecurity] and the AMA”, he said.

The Minister of the Presidency also said that “this month a proposed law on the new cybersecurity regime and transposition of the directive will go to public consultation”.

According to the official, this proposal on the new national cybersecurity regime should reach the Assembly of the Republic in December after public consultation.

Leitão Amaro also said that, after parliament gives its opinion on this new regime, the Government will update and list the national cybersecurity strategy.

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