Brazil is often known for its coastal beauty but sadly it should also be recognized for its prolific cyber security concerns. According to Symantec, Brazil is listed as number 7 on their list of countries with the biggest cybercrime problems. Despite investing significant amounts of money into cyber start-ups and establishing cooperative cyber security agreements with Argentina, India and Russia, Brazil is still struggling to overcome the persisting challenge that cyber-criminals present. On top of this, Brazil has recently taken a hardliner stance against the U.S. following the revelations of Edward Snowden. Brazil has actively supported the U.N.’s Cyberprivacy Agreement and begun taking steps to bypass the U.S.-operated underwater cable systems in order to reduce their dependence on who they now perceive to be false friends. It appears that Brazil, however, is focused on the wrong issues as they still need to overcome large numbers of internal banking Trojans and substantial gaps within their cyber security dynamics. Some experts even claim that Brazil’s current security posture is so poor that they are wide open to cyber-invasion. Brazil has also taken steps to introduce cloud technology into their government networks which could magnify problems in their current state. On a positive note, Brazil is now realizing that effective policy and law for responding to cybercrime is necessary. Hopefully Brazil will follow-up these legislative acts with improvements in their cyber security practices to provide some teeth for their new resolve.
For another recent summary of Brazil’s cyber security situation, check out the National Center for Digital Government’s whitepaper Brazil and the Fog of (Cyber) War.
– by Ben Volcsko, Research Assistant