After the cyber attack that occurred on April 7 at the General Directorate of Arms and Ammunition Control (Digecam), in which the data of about 18 thousand users were violated and stolenthe entity’s authorities announced measures to prevent a similar event from occurring again.
As part of these security measures, The Ministry of Defense (Mindef) published on June 2, on the Guatecompras portal, the event for the acquisition of a “Licensing for business edition website protection for use by the IT Department of the General Directorate of Arms and Ammunition Control (Digecam)”. The event is identified with the Operation Number in Guatecompras (NOG) 30734517.
Offers presented
The presentation of offers took place this Friday, June 5 and the company Business Information Technology Solutions, Sociedad Anónima, was the only bidder, for a value of Q47,394.
During 2026, this company has obtained a total of 16 awards in Guatecompras from different entitiesamong them the Bank of Guatemala, the Superintendency of Banks (SIB), the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Public Finance, the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance, the Ministry of Social Development and the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (PDH), for a total value of Q2 million 788 thousand 954.84. All awards have been for the sale, provision and maintenance of software for different uses, according to the information contained in Guatecompras.
The offer presented by the company for this security licensing for the Digecam web portal It is already under analysis and, if approved, it would be the second award received this year to provide services to that entity.
Specs
Within the minimum technical specifications required by the Defense portfolio, which are also found on the Guatecompras portal, it is established that Said licensing must have capacity for one domain, with a 12-month subscription. In addition, you must have specialized technical support during that period, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via chat.
Regarding the characteristics, it is indicated that it must have an application for web application protection (WAF), automatic and unlimited protection and mitigation of distributed denial of service attacks at the network and application level. You will also need to have alert monitoring, enabling security logs, real-time metrics, and configuring automatic alerts; access control; white and black lists of IP addresses; as well as access restrictions by country or region and other security measures.
The Ministry of Defense also establishes that must include the complete installation, configuration and implementation service for the optimal functioning of the license. Likewise, it must include training for Digecam staff. and 30 hours of support to address failures or critical events that require support from certified personnel.
The request for the acquisition was sent by the general director of Digecam, Otto Rosito, to the Ministry of Defense on April 20, 13 days after the computer attack on the institution’s portal. The technical opinion for the purchase was endorsed by that portfolio on April 21.
Prior award
On May 6, the Ministry of Defense awarded the company Business Information Technology Solutions, Sociedad Anónimathe acquisition of a computer, network and internet security solution, also for use of the Digecam, for a value of Q756,595.
The purchase was made through the identified event in Guatecompras with NOG 29844584, published by the Ministry of Defense on April 22, 15 days after the attack on the Digecam web portal.
The technical specifications of this security solution include a security information management system for processing large amounts of data from the web and local sources, an advanced reporting system with multiple filters and anomaly detection based on user behavior. It also includes an endpoint protection system with monitoring to detect suspicious activity 24 hours a day, seven days a week; a DNS protection system and VMware licenses for virtual machines used in the operation of cybersecurity solutions, among other technical aspects.
Reinforcement of controls and security
According to information from Digecam, after the computer attack, which according to the institution’s authorities was attributed to a user identified as “Gordon Freeman”, all required security measures have been taken to avoid a new incident. For this reason, the institution’s IT protocols and systems are being reinforced with the aim of safeguarding user data and other relevant information that is managed in the entity.
Acquisition of weapons for soldiers in the Congo
The Ministry of Defense also awarded an event in May for the renewal of weapons for the special forces contingent deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The acquisition of this weapon, identified with the Operation Number in Guatecompras (NOG) 30308267, It was awarded to the Government of the United States for an amount of Q2 million 443 thousand 048.48.
The Ministry of Defense acquired 16 machine guns for a unit value of Q152 thousand 690.53, which will be destined for the Guatemalan soldiers deployed in that African country as part of the operations and cooperation that Guatemala maintains with the United Nations for peacekeeping.
This is the second purchase of weapons that Guatemala has made to the United States through the Foreign Military Sales Program (FMS), after the lifting of the embargo on the sale of weapons that that country maintained for 47 years.
The first purchase was managed and awarded in September 2025. On that occasion, the Ministry of Defense acquired 2,699 Colt M4A1 carbines and 11,220 hoppers for these, with capacity for 30 5.56 millimeter caliber cartridges, for a total value of Q30 million 403 thousand 780.75.
During the last year, the United States has reinforced military cooperation with Guatemala, focused on combating drug trafficking and organized crime structures. As an example of this bilateral cooperation, On June 4, General Francis L. Donovan, commander of the United States Southern Command, visited the country. who held meetings with President Bernardo Arévalo; the Minister of Defense, Henry Sáenz; and the Minister of the Interior, Francisco Jiménez, with whom he addressed aspects related to this cooperation and the support that the United States will continue to provide to the country in equipment and training for the Guatemalan armed forces.
