The theft of confidential information, or phishing, costs banks in Latin America more than $93 billion annually, according to a report.
The authors of the report, presented at an IT conference in Buenos Aires, warned that "the scope of cybercrime in Latin America is really worrisome, with very likely scenarios of cyber-attacks and worrisome consequences for the population which include phishing losses to banks topping 93 billion dollars a year," reported AFP.
Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are the countries most affected by cyber crime in Latin America, according to the report, produced by the Amparo Project of Internet service provider organization LACNIC.
As InSight Crime has noted, Internet fraud is especially appealing to organized crime groups because it has minimal costs and less chance of being detected by authorities. Southern Pulse has reported on cases of criminal groups in Mexico and Brazil hiring hackers to help steal personal banking data and manufacture fraudulent credit cards.
Latin America has also been hit by non-financial cyber crimes, with a wave of cyber attacks this year on official sites including Brazil's Army, Colombia's Senate, and Peru's police force, as Southern Pulse details.
The report calls upon governmental institutions, the private sector and individual users in Latin America to fight the exponential expansion of cyber crime by taking immediate preventative measures.
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