Latin America had a 24% increase in cyberattacks in the first 8 months of the year compared to the same period, according to Kaspersky’s annual Latin America Threats Panorama 2021 report.
The report takes into account the 20 most popular malicious programs, which represent more than 103 million infection attempts in Mexico, an average of 5 attacks every second.
“The security of technologies for remote work must be a priority and piracy, both in personal and professional devices, must be eradicated,” warned the company specialized in cybersecurity.
The growth trend in cyberattacks, according to the report, is also reflected in all countries, with the exception of Costa Rica, which registered a slight increase of 2%. The list of countries is led by Ecuador (+ 75%), followed by Peru (+ 71%), Panama (+ 60%), Guatemala (+ 43%) and Venezuela (+ 29%). In total, only the Top20 of malware in the region it generates an average of 35 attacks per second.
Brazil leads the region with more than 1,390 infection attempts per minute, followed by Mexico (299 per minute); Peru (96 per minute), Ecuador (89 per minute) and Colombia (87 per minute).
For Dmitry Bestuzhev, director of Kaspersky’s Latin America Research and Analysis Team, the high rate of pirated programs in the region is a major driver for cybercrime. “When we analyze the locks made by our technologies, we can identify families of malware that allow us to say that Latin American Internet users open the door to cyberthreats, since these are spread through pirated programs, allowing cybercriminals to obtain full control of infected devices, “he explained.
Bestuzhev warned about attacks that use PDF files and web Trojans that steal credit card data, since these do not cause any effect on the computer.
“The interesting thing about these web attacks is that they do not infect the victim’s machine. The malicious code is present on the website of some electronic commerce or bank and the theft is carried out when the user enters their information on these sites ”, he explained.
According to the expert, these web attacks have become the main infection vector for both Windows and Mac operating system users. In the case of MacOS, the analyst highlights that the adware Malicious and cryptocurrency mining are among the main threats to this operating system.
Another relevant fact of the report is that the most common threats for Latin American Internet users are focused on mobile platforms, since according to the report more than 173 thousand attempts to infect mobile devices were registered in the region between January and August 2021, a average of almost 20 attacks per hour.
“The main threat is the programs of adware whose objective is to generate profits by showing unwanted advertisements to their victims ”, warned the specialist.
Also, among the most prominent mobile threats, according to the report, are Trojans that elevate privileges and allow a root to the phone, a function that grants full access to the device to be able to modify it, and spy Trojans (stalkerware).
“We classify commercial spyware as stalkerware. These are created by real companies that pass off the software as programs to monitor the online activities of children or employees. However, its real objective is to spy on spouses and partners, mainly women. This is a global problem that is related to violence against women ”, she highlighted Bestuzhev.
Threats to companies
According to the analysis of Kaspersky’s Threat Landscape 2021, companies did not safely migrate to remote work and the remote access technology required for the Home Office it is not protected, leaving companies exposed to cyber threats.
“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. When comparing the first eight months of 2021 with the same period of the previous year, we see a 78% increase in these types of attacks, ”said Bestuzhev.
The countries most attacked are Brazil (more than 5 million attempted attacks this year), Colombia (1.8 million), Mexico (1.7 million), Chile (1 million) and Peru (507 thousand).
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Another important factor in the business environment is piracy, since according to this report, use of pirated software is present in Windows system workstations, as well as in industrial operating systems.
“Unfortunately, the vast majority of industrial systems are out of date. That is, because they use pirated programs, they do not receive official security patches. As a result, we see that the ransomware WannaCry continues to circulate across all industries, even four years after the patch was issued, ”said Bestuzhev.
Furthermore, the report shows that, on average, there is one attempted attack on industrial systems per hour in Latin America. When it comes to Windows workstations, the cybersecurity company records more than 11,000 attacks per hour.
Among the most common threats to Microsoft’s operating system is a Trojan developed to steal company assets by diverting funds, the stalkerware and remote administration tools, according to the report.
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