In Mexico it is not mandatory to report to any competent authority if your financial institution suffered a cyber attack. As of August 31 of this year, 3 cyberattacks on banks and 1 on a savings and credit cooperative society were reported to the Bank of Mexico. These attacks caused losses of 67.61 million pesos with no reports of impacts to clients, until now. The financial attacks that now cause the most concern are ransomware and card sellers. It takes an organization on average 8 months to realize that it has suffered a cybersecurity incident.
Last October 26, the Forum “Perspectives and Challenges of Cybersecurity in Mexico” was held, and as part of this, the conference “Cybersecurity Challenges for the Financial Sector in Mexico” was held at the UDLAP facilities, Ciudad de Mexico. The conference was moderated by Darío Medina, professor at the UDLAP Graduate School, and Juan Manuel Aguilar, researcher at UNAM, Juan Carlos Hernández, General Director of Operational Intelligence at CONSAR, and Víctor Lagunes, Director of CyberLat, participated as speakers.
At the event, Victor Lagunes, Director of Cyberlat, explained that the speed of cyberattacks is much ahead of the cybersecurity assets and capabilities of companies in the financial sector in Mexico. We must strengthen prevention and awareness with both employees and managers, to give priority to this new front that must be covered.
Regarding cybersecurity talent, Lagunes mentioned that in Mexico we have very good cybersecurity engineers. We are a hotbed of talent that must be strengthened with continuous learning. It is key to be in constant training, be self-taught and have certifications.
For his part, Juan Carlos Hernández, General Director of Operational Intelligence of CONSAR, mentioned that cybersecurity is everyone's task, and that even in forums in which the public is dedicated to cybersecurity issues, it is necessary to raise awareness and invest in protection of our digital assets and banking information.
He suggested that cybersecurity professionals be aware of the various careers in cybersecurity so that they can decide from which front to approach this issue.
Juan Manuel Aguilar, researcher at UNAM, mentioned the various laws that exist on the subject and that it is a growing problem that we must abide by. It is also committed to an ecosystem in which companies and organizations do their part to promote cybersecurity, since until now the legislation has not been sufficient to comply with this issue.
This space was once again an opportunity to put on the table essential issues for the development and growth of the financial sector in our country. If we do not try to have an ecosystem that ensures security, these cyberattacks will continue to happen and cybercriminals will increase their profits. It is essential that financial organizations have preventive and comprehensive cybersecurity strategies. At CyberLat we have experts who can help you execute a cybersecurity strategy appropriate to the size of your organization. Write to us here: https://www.cyber.lat/contacto