Counted among Brazil’s largest insurance enterprises, Porto Seguro has now reported it was hit by a targeted cyberattack. The result on the insurance group’s operations includes service channel instability and impacted systems.
Reporting a cyberattack
The Brazilian company notified the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) of the incident, commenting that it had taken swift action when discovering the threat, rapidly activating its dedicated security protocols. After informing the relevant authority it focused on slowly and methodically restoring its operating environment with a view to resuming normal business status as soon as possible.
To date, Porto Seguro has not disclosed further details regarding the incident. For example, no information is yet available on the attack type suffered by the insurer. However, it is worth noting that so far, the group, its customers, partners, and subsidiaries have not been identified as having lost personal data during the recent attack.
A spate of cyberattacks
Porto Seguro is currently Brazil’s third largest insurer. It has the distinction of leading both residential and auto insurance sectors in the South American country and has approximately 10 million customers to its credit. Headquartered in São Paulo, the group has subsidiaries based locally in Brazil as well as in Uruguay and employs over 13,000 personnel.
The insurance giant is now the latest in a lengthy a list of high-profile Brazilian organisations that have recently suffered a major cybersecurity event. Earlier in October, one of Brazil’s largest travel operators, CVC, was targeted by a ransomware group. The attack on its systems brought its entire operation to a standstill.
Following the attack, the travel company installed a banner on its site that stated it had been struck by a cyberattack, and informed customers that it was working tirelessly to mitigate the effect of the incident.
Other major firms in Brazil were targeted by cybercriminal groups prior to the strikes on Porto Seguro and CVC. These included the Brazilian retail chain known as Renner which fell victim to an insidious ransomware attack that effectively compromised its e-commerce services. The online platform was put out of action for three whole days back in August this year.
Research on security measures was published by Datafolha Institute in association with Mastercard back in June this year. Statistics show that IT security teams are only in place at relatively few Brazilian organisations, despite the fact that most firms frequently encounter cyberattacks. The study discovered that telecommunications, technology, insurance and financial services are counted among the more prepared sectors in terms of being prepared cybersecurity-wise. However, the research revealed that Brazil’s healthcare and education sectors were the most at risk.
Another study, also conducted by Datafolha Institute, but published later in July, found that the fear of a cyberattack is considered high among Brazilian users. The investigation sought to measure concern levels regarding consumer security in information and data exchange environments. It uncovered that just 13% of respondents consider their personal data to be secure, while 21% suspect it is insecure.
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