Jair Bolsonaro’s management guaranteed this Wednesday (28) that the problem that brought down the Lattes and Carlos Chagas platforms would not cause any data loss. There is no deadline for the systems to come back online.
In a video released this afternoon, the President of the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) Evaldo Vilela says that there is a backup of the information contained in the platforms that are the most important for Brazilian research. Loss of information was feared among researchers and officials.
“Information security is guaranteed. We know this is a big concern and it was our priority to ensure this guarantee so we can inform the entire community as soon as possible, ”he said in the video.
Vilela apologized for the inconvenience and stressed that there would be no delays in grant payments. The deadlines for actions such as the submission of proposals, accounting and the validity of scholarships are suspended and extended.
The platforms Lattes and Carlos Chagas have been experiencing a blackout since Friday (23) after a failure in the technology area. Lattes is a database of the résumés of all researchers, and actions like granting grants depend on consultation with the platform – restoring the platform is a top priority, according to Vilela.
On the other hand, Carlos Chagas is responsible for conducting public calls and announcements to promote research, administration, and grant payment. Around 84,000 researchers are funded by the CNPq, but other research institutions also operate operations anchored in Lattes.
The president of CNPq confirmed that the system failure was caused by the burning of a device in devices that has the function of controlling the servers that host the platforms. This occurred when migrating data to a new server. He ruled out the action of a hacker.
In an email the report received, a CNPq employee reported Monday (26) that CNPq’s main server had been reached and that it was out of warranty and with no maintenance contract. This would prevent an immediate repair and would require an outside company to be used.
The diagnosis of the problem was carried out by two contracted companies. The government is still looking for devices to replace the damaged device, which the government said should be done by Thursday (29).
Officials point to the failure as a reflection of the CNPq’s budget decline, which is rejected by the CNPq’s president. “I stress that the IT problem is not budget related,” said Vilela.
According to Thales Marçal, director of information technology and management for the organization, the modernization of the entire infrastructure of the platforms with the purchase of a new server was already under way. “The process of migrating all systems was already under way. It’s a slow process and in the middle of that process the old equipment had the problem, ”he said on the video.
According to Marçal, the backup will be installed on the new server. “There are nearly 7 million resumes. It’s already started [a instalação] and there are about 48 hours left to the end. “
Linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the CNPq has the lowest value since at least 2012 in 2021, even in nominal values. The Agency’s updated budget allocation for the year is R $ 1.2 billion – for example, between 2013 and 2015 the implemented budget exceeded R $ 2 billion.