PRESS RELEASE – ON September 25, the Organization of American States (OAS) presented a report on the “State of Cybersecurity in the Banking Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean”, which includes an analysis of the past year in the banking sector and online banking users in aspects related to cybersecurity.
The main findings of the report are: At least nine out of ten banking entities suffered cyber incidents during the last year; 37 percent of the banks in the region were victims of successful attacks; 39 percent of the incidents were not reported, in the case of the largest banking entities this number goes down to 19 percent; and six out of ten users, who do not use digital banking services, don’t trust the security of bank transactions.
The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, said, “Guaranteeing the security of citizens, the private sector and governments in the cyber world is one of the priorities on the agenda of our member countries, since the opportunities offered by digitalization also bring threats that must be faced.
“With this report, the OAS wants to offer the countries of the region and their banking entities, a tool that allows them to analyze and improve their cybersecurity capabilities, improving the right of users to secure banking services.”
The presentation was made during the OAS Cybersecurity Symposium which took place from September 24 to 28 in Washington, DC, with the participation of global experts in different areas of cybersecurity, who exchanged knowledge and good practices on specific topics: privacy and human rights, forensic analysis, cyber risk management, strategic development and implementation, and the management of cyber-attack response centres, among other topics.