Cyberattacks grow 23% in Brazil in 2021 and reach 1,400 threats per minute

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Cyber-attacks, as the attempts to break into computers and mobile devices through online fraud are called, grew by 23% in Brazil in 2021, according to Kaspersky.

Together, the twenty most popular malware (malicious programs distributed over the Internet) totaled 481 million infection attempts between January and August, equivalent to 1,395 incidents per minute.

The total considers only the attempts blocked by solutions from the digital security company, maker of one of the most popular antivirus software on the market.

According to Kaspersky, the same growth trend in online fraud attempts recorded in Brazil was repeated in other countries in the region, except Costa Rica, which saw a 2% decrease. The biggest increases in threat incidence were in Ecuador (75%), Peru (71%), Panama (60%), Guatemala (43%), and Venezuela (29%).

According to the Latin America-focused “Threats Outlook 2021” survey, the main drivers of this increase have been remote working, a trend that intensified after the pandemic, and the use of “pirated” software and services.

“When we analyze the blocks carried out, we identify families of ‘malware’ that allow us to say that Latin American Internet users are looking for threats, as they are spread through software piracy,” explains Dmitry Bestuzhev, director of Kaspersky’s Research and Analysis Team in Latin America.

The expert also highlights the scams using PDF and “trojans”, types of invasions designed to steal personal data, most often linked to bank accounts. According to Bestuzhev, these attacks have become the main infection vector for Windows users and Apple computer customers.

On the other hand, according to the data, phishing attacks have been decreasing. However, Brazil still ranks first in the region, with 15.4 percent of Internet users reporting this type of attack.

“Phishing” is a type of scam in which criminals use thematic “lures” in e-mails, SMSs, messaging applications, and social networks to steal users’ personal data – the term borrows from the English word for fishing.

The idea of the scammers in these cases is to trick the victim into believing that the communication is legitimate, with the ultimate goal of getting them to agree to download malicious files and applications or even to provide confidential information believing they are in a secure environment.

Another common type of threat that the company highlighted was the attempts to break into mobile devices, led by false advertisements on websites. There were more than 173,000 infection attempts of this nature in 2021 in Brazil, according to Kaspersky.

THREATS TO COMPANY SYSTEMS SKYROCKET

According to the survey, there was a 78% increase in the number of fraud attempts against corporate systems in 2021 due to the forced adaptation of companies to the “home office” system after the pandemic.

“This type of attack exploits vulnerabilities present in remote access technologies or tries to guess the passwords to access the machine or server to steal data from companies and then try to extort them,” explains the director of Kaspersky.

Brazil once again led the way in Latin America, with more than 5 million attempted attacks this year, followed by Colombia (1.8 million), Mexico (1.7 million), Chile (1 million), and Peru (507,000).

The report also highlights that Costa Rica (378%), Venezuela (113%), and Argentina (91%) are the countries with the highest growth in attacks compared to the previous year.

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