The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (EMCO) of the Chilean Armed Forces (FF.AA), General Guillermo Paiva, presented his resignation on Thursday following a massive email leak that included sensitive national security information.
The resignation of the uniformed officer, confirmed according to various local media, is known following the security breach perpetrated by the Guacamaya hacker group that released more than 400,000 email messages from the EMCO, including documents classified as “reserved”, “secret” and “top secret”.
The incident is so serious that Defense Minister Maya Fernández suspended her participation in the presidential tour in New York to return to the country and face the crisis, which affects all branches of the Armed Forces.
“Faced with the known facts in relation to the lack of security of the emails of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President of the Republic has instructed the Minister of National Defense to return to the country to lead the response to these facts”communicated from the Chilean Government.
Along with delivering the records to the military justice to promote a criminal investigation, the Executive ordered an administrative summary to determine the corresponding responsibilities.
Congress, meanwhile, has already taken action and its National Defense Commission has already summoned the Secretary of State together with the Undersecretary and the head of EMCO, in order to account for the scope of the leak.
According to local investigations, the leaked files include data on cybersecurity, communications and border monitoring, as well as sensitive information on intelligence and satellite monitoring systems.
Source: EFE
