Buenos Aires Herald 
The Mi Argentina site and the SUBE card app, two of the government’s most important digital platforms, were hacked Wednesday night after suffering a cyber attack. The former is a state-owned app that lets users carry their digital IDs and all relevant legal documentation on their phones, while the latter is the site where they can manage all operations of their public transport payment card.
The news caused concern in government officials due to the sensitive nature of the matter, given that the platforms contain the personal information of millions of citizens.
The Secretary of Innovation, Science, and Technology confirmed that the breach was the result of a cyber attack. The Mi Argentina site was accessible Thursday morning, but most of its sections were still unavailable. The platform began functioning normally again after a few hours.
Inside the cyber attack on the Mi Argentina site
Users who logged on to the site saw a blank screen and a message that read, “503 Service Unavailable. No server is available to handle this request.”
Users who entered the site experienced difficulties issuing or renewing their national identification card (DNI) as well as their passports. There were also problems when trying to issue a legal background certificate. The tabs “Documentation,” “Transit and transport,” and “Work and employment,” as well as the “More topics” section, had the same type of issues.
The cyber attack took place around 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday. That was the time in which the Mi Argentina site began showing the “Error 503” message, which means that the server can not process user requests due to overload or technical issues.
The first messages confirming that the site was hacked appeared a few minutes later. The perpetrators also made references to other possible attacks against other government platforms.
The party or individual responsible for the cyber attack on the used the seudonym “h4xx0r1337″ to identify themselves, a signature they left on various parts of the site. They also mentioned the account @gov.eth, which could prove a link between them in connection to other recent cyber attacks.
The government’s response
In addition to blaming previous administrations for leaving what they said was a situation vulnerable to cyber attacks, the Secretary of Innovation, Science, and Technology pointed the finger at “a group of deputies and senators from Congress who chose to play high politics instead of guaranteeing the funds destined to combat these crimes.”
Their message was a specific reference to an “urgent investment meant to strengthen computer infrastructure and security” that was included in decree 656/2024, which granted the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE, by its Spanish acronym) a US$100 million budget for confidential purposes. They went on to fault the aforementioned lawmakers for the government’s inability to complete this operation. The decree was struck down by Congress.