Latin America has become an exporter of malware

In addition to specializing in financial cyberattacks, the Kaspersky leader said that one of the most worrying trends is the so-called C2C, that is, cybercrime to cybercrime, the network of cybercriminal groups that work for others generating software or hardware to perpetuate digital crimes. in the world.

“Before it was more common for many of these tools that are used to be imported from countries like Russia or China, today Latin American groups have specialized in carrying out financial fraud and in evaluating payment systems such as SPEI, which when operating in regions as populated as America Latina, they can serve in other countries,” Martinelli pointed out.

The cybersecurity company has also identified the relationship of criminal groups with cybercriminal networks, which has resulted in attacks such as the intervention of data from customs agencies in order to enter drug shipments.

“Not only do they communicate with cybercriminals in the region, they also communicate with networks in other parts of the world, and it is increasingly common to see criminal groups resort to cybercrime to manipulate or search for information.”

In addition to this problem, within the trends that Kaspersky saw grow in Latin America, the use of ransomware remains, and the number of hacktivism groups that have emerged is worrying.

“The big problem that we are beginning to see is that many of these hacktivists are forcing governments and companies to pay sums of money that end up financing criminal networks,” Kaspersky said.

A case that the company recovers is that of Guacamaya Leaks, where the Secretary of National Defense was involved and where information was leaked that affects different federal agencies.

“In order to strengthen the security of users, government and companies, a lot of awareness is required, especially due to the increase in digitization that the region has experienced,” said Jaime Berditchevsky, general director for Kaspersky in Mexico.

Among the recommendations that the company makes is to establish a strategy that includes at least these three pillars: intelligence, education and protection tools.

“Increased connectivity is leading criminals to continually devise new methods and expand the complexity and scale of their attacks. Cybercriminals quickly launch complex attacks against the weakest link in the omnichannel network, targeting people who are inexperienced in conducting online transactions and who have less cybersecurity awareness,” said the company LexisNexis, which identified that only among January and June 2022, 39 billion fraudulent transactions were registered.