Among the many challenges facing financial institutions, cybersecurity undoubtedly stands out. With the increase in attacks, it is essential for banks, fintech companies, and other institutions in the sector to take proactive measures to mitigate these risks and protect both their customers and their own financial stability.
According to Deloitte, more than 60% of Spanish companies increased their cybersecurity budgets in 2022. By industry, banking is among those allocating the most resources to cybersecurity (over 30 million euros). Sectors like insurance are among the most targeted, while the top three types of cyberattacks remain ransomware, malware, and phishing.
Currently, financial and banking companies in Latin America face a significant number of cyber risks. According to estimates from Kaspersky, the region has become a major hub for global financial threats, with malware attacks and phishing as the main vectors.
It’s worth noting that, in general, Latin American online threats are more focused on mobile devices than on computers. The main targets of fraudulent messages include financial topics such as stealing online/mobile banking credentials, using financial services themes to steal passwords, and seeking payment data (credit card information).
By country, Brazil stands out as the market with the most malware attacks, followed by Mexico and Peru, then Colombia and Ecuador, with Argentina and Chile trailing behind. However, the biggest threat in Latin America is phishing, that is, fraudulent messages sent via email, SMS, and especially through social networks and messaging apps like WhatsApp. Once again, Brazil is the most attacked country, followed by Ecuador, with Peru, Colombia, Chile, Panama, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Mexico following behind. The most concerning trends include new forms of propagation and design of banking trojans, as well as increased sophistication in evasion techniques, such as the use of camouflage methods and the exploitation of region-specific vulnerabilities.
Since cyberattacks can have serious consequences for financial institutions (including data loss, service interruptions, loss of customer trust, and potential legal repercussions), it is crucial that they implement robust and secure systems, software, and authentication measures. They should also focus on encrypting sensitive data and planning incident response strategies to minimize risks.
Moreover, as the global cost of cybercrime has never been higher, companies—and especially financial ones—are finding it necessary to double down on cybersecurity efforts, making it vital for them to stay informed about how the threat landscape is evolving.
For 2024, predictions indicate that cybercriminal groups will, in general, diversify their targets and tactics, focusing on more sophisticated and disruptive attacks, with a particular emphasis on denial-of-service and extortion.
Social engineering, the quintessential psychological strategy for bank fraud and data theft, will be the primary weapon cybercriminals will develop to attack companies and trick them into performing actions or sharing confidential information in digital environments.
Another major trend is that criminal groups will continue to focus on insufficiently protected smart devices and will exploit security flaws in software programs on which many other programs depend, leading to massive impacts.
As banks, financial institutions, and fintech companies expand the number of platforms, applications, and technologies they rely on for daily business operations, cybercriminals have more unique opportunities to discover and exploit software vulnerabilities, which could result in more “zero-day” ransomware attacks. If hacked, these could have a significant impact on the company’s reputation.
AI, the Main Protagonist
Industry experts agree that without a doubt, the most significant novelty is that cybercriminals will take advantage of advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create increasingly convincing fraudulent text messages, videos, and audios by gathering online data and feeding it to specialized LLMs (Large Language Models). “AI as a service” will enable them to find accessible tools to fulfill their purposes, including improving phishing strategies and impersonating specific individuals.
On the flip side, AI and machine learning will be widely used to protect data in hybrid cloud environments by identifying hidden data, encrypting it, and detecting breaches early. This also applies to detecting and blocking malware through the analysis of file characteristics, network traffic, user behavior, and other indicators of compromise.
Although many organizations are strengthening their security controls and adopting new technologies and processes to bolster their defenses, cybercriminals are quickly finding new ways to achieve their goals.
In this context, it is increasingly necessary to balance security with user experience through actions such as risk analysis when multiple login attempts are made, verifying users through behavioral data, and using biometric data or multi-factor authentication.
Ultimately, as threats become more imminent and dangerous, companies must make cyber resilience the core of their business strategies. This requires allocating the technical and financial resources to strengthen their cybersecurity systems, understanding the need to strategically prepare even more for AI-generated opportunities, and having real-time threat dashboards that are essential for planning, tracking, and responding to attacks.
