From Venezuela, engineer Lino Simoes, general manager of MásQueSeguridad (MQD), urges Latin American companies to rethink cybersecurity as an “essential investment for business resilience,” highlighting that cyberattacks in the region increased by 40 % in 2024, according to the OAS-CICTE.

“In challenging economies like ours, every dollar counts. But reducing cybersecurity to an ‘expense’ is a catastrophic mistake: protecting data means ensuring business continuity,” Simoes points out. “A single breach can cost up to four times more than implementing robust solutions, not counting reputational damage.”

Why is investing in cybersecurity profitable?

Lino Simoes bases his position on three pillars:

1. Protection of critical assets:

“78% of Venezuelan SMEs depend on digital data (according to CAVEDATOS). Losing them to ransomware paralyzes operations and generates fines as a result of international data protection regulations.”

2. International competitiveness:

“Companies with ISO 27001 certifications access global markets. Investors demand security guarantees. 65% reject projects without clear protocols (as reflected in the Deloitte LATAM 2024 Study).”

3. Long-term savings:

“Early vulnerability detection reduces remediation costs by 90%. Clients in Colombia and Panama recover their investment in 18 months.”

Landmark case

– A Venezuelan agro-industrial company avoided losses of USD $280,000 after a phishing attempt targeting its financial department, thanks to MásQueSeguridad’s proactive monitoring system. The previous investment was USD $12,000.

A compelling statement

“The right question is not: Can we afford to invest in security? But rather: Can we risk not doing so?” Simoes states, adding that “in Latin America, where digital fraud is growing by 25% annually, this determines which companies survive.”

About MasQueSeguridad

– We are a leading cybersecurity solutions firm for Latin America, based in Venezuela. We specialize in ISO 27001 audits, incident response, and digital awareness training.

Contact Information

Mail: contacto@masqueseguridad.com.ve

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Data is the most valuable asset for companies and organizations, as it contains privileged information about customers, business strategies, research, technological developments and much more. Hence, the loss or unauthorized access to this information can have devastating consequences for companies.

In the business arena, data leaks can lead to loss of customer trust, costly litigation, reputational damage, and significant financial losses.

All these topics were the center of the analysis during the fourteenth edition of ESET Security Day Venezuela 2024, which had a wide participation of professionals, companies and users interested in cybersecurity, who were received by Michele Flammia, general director of ESET Venezuela (Logintel), and they highlighted the quality of the presentations, the relevance of the topics addressed and the opportunity to interact with experts in the area.

The event, organized by ESET, a leading computer security company, has become a regional reference in terms of updating and analyzing the latest threats and trends in the digital field.

Held on May 30 in Caracas, the event brought together cybersecurity experts and industry professionals, thus reaffirming ESET’s commitment to education and awareness in this matter.

Secure data

During the event, three prominent speakers presented presentations on four topics of utmost relevance in the field of cybersecurity. The first of them was Martina López, from Argentina, Security Researcher at ESET Latin America, who referred to Data Protection as “The new gold of the 21st century”, underlining the great importance that data protection has acquired in a world where Information has become a highly coveted asset, both by entities and cybercriminals, hence the protection of information becomes vital for corporations.

During his presentation, López detailed key aspects of this problem, from the evolution of data breaches and sophisticated espionage attacks, to the threats that organizations face today. He presented a practical example of how a person, not necessarily very computer expert, can gain remote access to a company’s data and use it for illegal purposes.

Legislation

Carlos López Rodríguez, Support and Training Manager at ESET Venezuela, spoke on the topic “Data Protection: Safeguarding corporate gold” and How to prevent cybercriminals from accessing the infrastructure of organizations and mitigate the impact of security incidents ?

He shared strategies and solutions to protect against the most common cyber threats facing organizations and users today. Among these threats are malware, ransomware, phishing and attacks on the supply chain, in constant and accelerated evolution due to the use of artificial intelligence. It recommended the implementation of appropriate security measures, staff training and constant updating of software and systems.

In another talk, Carlos López referred to “Data protection laws: an ally more than an enemy”, the reality of legislation in Latin America related to data protection and its application in organizations. He explained that in Venezuela there is no updated legislation on this matter.

Cybersecurity culture

Finally, José Luis Rangel, Commercial Manager of ESET Venezuela, closed the event’s presentations with his presentation on the topic: “We build the cybersecurity culture together,” in which he indicated that organizations face a primary challenge such as is the ability to adjust to regional labor and regulatory developments, “it is crucial that each team member has access to the necessary information while ensuring their security against cyber threats. This paradigm shift urges us to rethink the ways of communicating, adapting methods and habits that build a culture of collaborative cybersecurity.”

In addition to the conferences, ESET Security Day Venezuela 2024 also offered a space for exchange and collaboration between participants, with a Table of Experts, moderated by journalist Edgar Rincón and in which specialists in the area of ​​cybersecurity participated: Milthon Chávez, Rafael Núñez, Martina López and Aníbal Vera, who answered questions to the attendees to share other experiences in the area.

Video

We invite you to listen and watch, as well as share and comment on the following video coverage:

For more information, visit the ESET website: https://www.logintel.com/ve/.

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Audiovisual production: Ida Febres

Source of information and reference images: In-person audiovisual coverage of El Sumario and DOBLE LLAVE, as well as texts from Comstat Rowland Comunicaciones Estratégicas Integrales

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The II Edition of the ‘Citizen Security Expo 2022’ was held between December 2 and 4 at the Simón Bolívar Park facilities, in La Carlota (Caracas), and MásQueSeguridad (MQS), a leading company in cybersecurity services —which not only had a stand through which it introduced attendees to the best of its portfolio of offers— but also with the presentation of its vice president William Ruiz, through his presentation “Trends and threats in Cybersecurity in 2023”.

And it is that the area of ​​expertise of MQS, which has been everything related to the digital world, was one of the several main axes of the event. Hence the importance of the presence of the company, and, above all, of its founder and director, the altruistic businessman and expert in computer security, Rafael Núñez Aponte.

Núñez and a team of professionals from the company shared with the public what MQS’s work is when it comes to providing information security advice and consultancy to all types of companies, while presenting what the Different solutions that they offer in this regard, such as: penetration tests, vulnerability analysis, digital forensics, courses and legal advice on computer security, among others.

For the protection of the citizen

During the ‘Citizen Security Expo 2022’, the different State security forces also presented to the population what are their latest technical and scientific advances, while they carried out different training talks.

The director of the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (CICPC), C/G Douglas Rico, was one of the most active officials and precisely touched on the issue of digital security and how computer crimes have grown in recent times, especially all after the pandemic, which made criminals mutate.

Rico spoke of the many modus operandi that some criminal groups use in this matter, emphasizing online scams, especially those seen on the Marketplace platform, which is used to make deceptive offers and steal from users. He also commented on telephone extortion, the theft of WhatsApps or emails, identity theft, among others.

Faced with these risks, many recommendations were offered at the ‘Citizen Security Expo 2022’, and almost all of them agreed on the use of common sense and prevention as the main weapon to protect oneself, which is one of the maxims that over the years have Both the group of experts who work at MásQueSeguridad and Rafael Núñez Aponte have been preaching.

With information from DobleLlave

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Cybercrime re-evolution is a concrete threat by 2022

The costliest cyberattacks in history have taken place over the past two years, with record amounts of stolen credit cards, high-tech crimes suitable for stopping companies and unsettling nations.

In addition, novice cybercriminals can with small resources and knowledge scam and extort anyone, who end up being daily victims and numbering in the millions.

According to eXtreme Cybersecurity Lab studies, for this new year the threats will be re-evolutionary. In other words, criminals will optimize their existing practices that will take them to a new level of perfectionism and effectiveness in wrongdoing.

This was indicated by the engineer Lino Simoes, general manager of MásQueSeguridad, during a year-end luncheon that brought together all the managers of that organization. Simoes made reference to publications in this regard made by Catalina Cepparro from SUR Comunicación – Argentina.

MásQueSeguridad agrees and reinforces that digital protection comes first

The MásQueSeguridad (MQS) team coincided with these affirmations and theses, the renowned firm based in Caracas and international projection, led by the IT specialist Rafael Núñez, its CEO, who offers organic solutions to companies providing security and technological shielding of the digital operations.

Groups that operate at a transnational level will continue to expand to develop criminal operations. These will place their focus on the adoption of new technologies and Artificial Intelligence to improve their social engineering techniques at the service of crime.

This outlines the need today more than ever to have preventive and crisis care plans, such as those offered in Venezuela by the qualified team of MásQueSeguridad.

It should be noted that the new criminal modalities will affect the way in which business managers and governments must assess risks, as they will be exploited by cybercriminals to raise fear in users.

Attacks on mission critical infrastructures will continue to increase during 2022, which is why it is essential to protect intangible assets from the action and reach of digital criminals.

Rafael Núñez Aponte, citing the report published by Catalina Cepparro and SUR Comunicación, as well as the eXtreme Cybersecurity Lab studies, specified as a summary:

While ransomware infection rates are declining, more and more companies are paying the ransom. More than half of organizations affected by ransomware pay to unlock their data, further fueling criminal activity.

• Phishing attacks hit their highest level in 3 years.
• 70% of online fraud was carried out through mobile platforms.
• On average, 82 malicious applications are identified each day, downloaded from official and unofficial stores. The main categories of fraudulent applications are Games 21% and Entertainment and Lifestyle 17%.
• Cybercriminals’ tactics often take advantage of available information, 63% of intrusions occur as a result of compromised usernames and passwords.
• 88% of organizations recognize that insider threats are a cause for concern, although it is observed that the damage caused by people within the organization can be unintentional.
• The percentage of organizations that were victims of ransomware and that paid ransoms increased from 45% to 57.5% in 2021 and there are estimates that this number will continue to rise in 2022.

With information from MásQueSeguridad – Caracas

And Catalina Cepparro / SUR Communication – Argentina

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