According to data from the 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report, carried out by Fortinet, 87% of Latin American companies suffered cyberattacks in the last year.
The digitization boom has now given rise to all our data being deposited on the network and, many times, it is not known how it is that it is used by companies or what are the risks that we run every day in a context in which hackers are the order of the day.
In this context, we live in an era in which, more and more, so-called cyber attacks occur more constantly, which is why companies have been forced to take various measures, such as even contracting cybersecurity services.
Just andin 2020, cybercrimes reached six trillion dollarsaccording to the Cybersecurity Report prepared by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The increase in cyberattacks, together with the sophistication of the techniques applied by criminals, represent a challenge for SMEs that transitioned their business to electronic commerce or digitized the way they operate.
Latin American companies suffer cyberattacks
Now, as published by the 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report, for which a series of interviews were conducted with more than 1,200 IT and cybersecurity decision makers in 29 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia In the US and Mexico, 70 percent of companies revealed having suffered from one to four security breaches in the last 12 months and 17 percent said they had suffered more than five.
Given this, the economic damages of these attacks were equal to or greater than US$ 1 million for 63% of the companies consulted.
On the other hand, 89 percent of the affected organizations have questioned the decisions that are being made to reverse this situation. The answer, as revealed by Fortinet, lies in increasing the number of IT and cybersecurity employees.
And it is that, experts assure that more and better professions are needed in the matter; According to the 2021 Cyber Workforce Report from (ISC)2, the global cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 65% to effectively defend the critical assets of organizations.
Currently, there are 2.72 million cybersecurity and IT professionals; however, this figure remains very low and therefore leaves companies vulnerable. In fact, to resolve the issue a little in Latin America, 701,000 cybersecurity professionals are needed.
In this way, what is required, in addition to increasing the workforce, is to carry out better training. The report indicates that 77 percent of leaders prefer to hire people with certifications; however, 88 percent say that it is difficult to find professionals with this differential.
95% of respondents say they are willing to pay for an employee to receive cybersecurity certifications.
And it is that, ultimately, one of the main reasons why companies highly value certifications is to increase awareness and perform tasks more efficiently.