FEATURE : CLOUD SECURITY
Furthermore , the number of users uploading information to cloud applications increased by 4 % between July 2022 and June 2023 , in line with other regions .
OneDrive is the most popular application among Latin American users , followed by Google Drive and Microsoft Teams . Google apps hold more significance in Latin America , while Microsoft apps are more widespread in other regions , except OneDrive and Outlook . Communication apps such as WhatsApp ,
THE MISUSE OF CLOUD APPLICATIONS FOR MALWARE DISTRIBUTION ALLOWS ATTACKERS TO BYPASS SECURITY CONTROLS THAT RELY MAINLY ON DOMAIN BLOCKLISTS AND URLS OR THAT DO NOT INSPECT CLOUD TRAFFIC .
Google Chat , and Slack are more recognized among Latin American users when compared to other areas .
Cloud Malware Distribution
The popularity of cloud-based malware delivery in Latin American organizations has significantly increased over the past 12 months , from 47 % in July 2022 to 71 % in June 2023 .
As a result , the average malware download rates during this period are slightly higher compared to other regions , with 61 % of malware downloads by Latin American users compared to 57 % in other areas .
Attackers attempt to remain unnoticed by distributing malicious content through popular cloud applications such as OneDrive , accounting for 21 % of all cloud malware downloads , followed by Amazon S3 ( with an average of 11 % of users over the last 12 months ) and Outlook ( contributing to 7.5 % of downloads ).
The misuse of cloud applications for malware distribution allows attackers to bypass security controls that rely mainly on domain blocklists and URLs or that do not inspect cloud traffic .
Latin America has a higher average of malware downloads from the cloud than other regions , with 61 % on average , second only to Australia . The most common types of malware blocked by Netskope in Latin America were trojans , followed by downloaders and backdoors .
The banking trojans Grandoreiro and Mekotio are among the top malware families blocked by Netskope in Latin America . LockBit and BlackCat stand out among the most common ransomware blocked by Netskope during the same period . Concerning backdoors , Remcos , Quakbot and NjRAT ( also known as Bladabindi ) were the top malicious programs blocked by Netskope .
Key Security Recommendations
Netskope Threat Labs recommends organizations in Latin America to review their security posture to ensure they are adequately protected , with recommendations such as :
42 INTELLIGENTCIO LATAM www . intelligentcio . com