FEATURE: CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Oswaldo Palacios, Senior Account Executive, Akamai, says critical infrastructures have become the most desired target of terrorist attacks – as well as cyberattacks by individuals – with reported incidents increasing by 668 % globally since 2022.
Netflix’ s new American series Day Zero portrays a massive nationwide cyberattack against transportation and energy infrastructures throughout the United States, causing the loss of human lives. This event, far from being considered unreal, leads us to reflect on whether Latin American countries are prepared to face an attack of this type.
In recent years, critical infrastructures have become the most desired target for terrorist attacks, cyberattacks by individuals and even hybrid attacks by governments and intelligence services. Attackers are increasingly using disruptive tactics, rather than stealing data, as disruption to operations can yield more consistent returns than trying to sell stolen records on the black market.
The world’ s critical infrastructures have suffered nearly 900 million attacks of varying magnitude through 2024, according to Forescout Research – Vedere Labs. Since 2022, reported incidents in critical infrastructure increased from 50 to 384 globally, or 668 %.
Threat actors have attacked 176 countries, 13 more than in 2023.
Seven strategies to strengthen security in the face of increasing cyberattacks against critical infrastructure
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