Cyberattacks in Latin America are showing a constant growth thanks to several reasons: from moving to home office due to the pandemic situation to the use of pirated programs, something quite common in the region. These are problems that Latin American countries are dealing with. Keep reading to learn more about how the region is facing cybersecurity threats.

Cyberattacks in Latin America are growing

Kaspersky’s Latin America Threat Outlook 2021 is an annual report presented by the cybersecurity expert company, thanks to their Research and Analysis Team. This report stated several interesting facts, one of the major points was the growth by 24% of the cyberattacks in the region. There is an average of at least 35 attacks per second, showing that the technologies to secure remote work and eradicate piracy on different devices and programs must be the top priority for companies and governments.

This growth is reflected in the majority of the countries, with the exception of Costa Rica that only presented an increase of 2%. The list has Ecuador (+ 75%) as the leader, followed by Peru (+ 71%), Panama (+ 60%), Guatemala (+ 43%) and Venezuela (+ 29%). But when talking about the number of attacks, Brazil and Mexico are leading in that aspect. The former with 1,390 infection attempts per minute; the latter with 299 per minute. 

Even when Latin America is highly connected, many users don’t have access to the official programs and content, so piracy is very common in the region. That way, they can enjoy or use the necessary programs. But even when the attacks are growing, phishing is decreasing. It is also interesting that Venezuela (7.19%) and the Dominican Republic (5, 62%) are among the countries with the fewest social engineering attacks in the entire globe. 

Another important point is that the majority of the attacks are focused on mobile devices; the main threat are adware programs that aim to generate profit by displaying unwanted ads to their victims. However, the analyst notes that among the most prominent mobile threats are Trojan spies (stalkerware). This is a delicate threat because this malware works by taking root on the device to spy on the user at a digital level. It is noted that, in Latin America, it is used as a way of spying on women and is considered as violence against this demographic, finding the majority of the victims in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.  

Threats to companies in Latin America

For companies, it is pretty much the same panorama. The big problems are the lack of the right technologies to migrate to home office, and the use of illegal programs. Like any other region in the world, Latin America needs to move its workers to remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic. But those workers don’t have the necessary tools to work secured at home, especially while using the company system. 

“This type of attack exploits vulnerabilities present in remote access technologies or tries to guess passwords to access a machine or server connected to the Internet and enter the corporate network to steal data or extort money from its victim,” Kaspersky commented. Cryptocurrency mining is becoming a big threat to companies; many workers are on this trend, but this is the perfect way to gain access to different devices and thus the company system. Each user must be aware of it and try to have the best cybersecurity protection. 

Cybersecurity in Latin America is growing, taking the right spot in the concern of companies and governments. However, there is still so much to do to decrease those numbers and have the best technology to face cyberattacks and threats. Keep in touch with our blog to read the latest news and innovations in the cybersecurity world. 

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