Cloud-related cyber threats and hacking & leaking operations are the top cybersecurity concerns for executives in Latin America, according to PwC’s Global Digital Trust Insights 2025 Survey – Latin America Findings published earlier this month.
More than half (55%) even see cyber risks as their top risk for mitigation (57% globally). This while only 2% of companies surveyed have completely implemented cyber resilience across their organisation and the average cost of a data breach across all respondents is US$ 3.3 Million.
Further explanation of these findings can also be seen in Kaspersky Latinoamerica’s Corporate Threat Landscape that revealed that over 268 million cyber attacks on Latin American organisations were blocked between Oct 2023 and Oct 2024. This included 262.3 million phishing attempts, over 1.3 million banking trojans and around 560,000 ransomware attacks. These numbers reflects the persistent and growing activity of cybercriminals in the region, with a notable increase in attacks targeting key sectors (e.g. Government, Healthcare).
Leveraging GenAI for Cybersecurity
The rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is transforming business opportunities, yet it also introduces fresh cybersecurity challenges.
While GenAI increases the risk of cyber attack for many organizations, executives are also harnessing the same technology for cybersecurity. The three primary ways they utilize GenAI include threat detection and response, threat intelligence, and malware/phishing detection.
72% of respondents in the region boosted their GenAI investments over the past year.
Obstacles to incorporating GenAI into cyber defense strategies:
- Difficulty incorporating with existing systems/processes (39%)
- Lack of trust in GenAI by internal actors (36%)
- Inadequate internal controls and risk management (37%)
- Lack of standardized internal policies regulating its use (40%)
Cybersecurity Priorities & Investments
47% of Latin American CEO’s prioritises data protection & data trust as the top cyber investment over the next year. On the other hand, tech leaders (CIOs/CTOs/CISOs) indicate cloud security (41%) is their top-priority.
77% of executives expect to increase their cybersecurity budget in 2025, indicating the importance of the topic.
Cybersecurity as an investment to gain competitive advantage
Latin American businesses indicate that they view cybersecurity investment as a critical factor for gaining a competitive advantage, with 66% emphasizing customer trust and 61% highlighting brand integrity and loyalty as key motivators. Additionally, cyber regulations are playing a significant role to increase cybersecurity spending.
Key cyber resilience actions to implement accros the organisation
A few of the key actions organisations can take to improve cyberresilience:
- Increase the involvement of CIOs/CTOs/CISOs in strategic & commercial planning,
- Implement cyber recovery technology solutions
- Identify critical business processes
- Undertake simulation exercises
- Develop a Cyber Recovery Playbook for IT loss scenarios
- Create specialized teams to handle security incidents.
About the Survey
The 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights is a survey of 4,042 business and technology executives from 77 countries conducted in May through July 2024. 12% of respondents were from Latin America.
View the PwC Global Digital Trust Insights 2025 Survey – Latin America Findings
Cybersecurity tips from Kaspersky Latin America