Breathe
By Sophia Huett
Mexico is a country lagging behind in cybersecurity.
By 2018 there was barely a Cybersecurity police area in the Federal Police. Its incipient capabilities and attraction of talent was truncated with the new security model of the National Guard, which privileged deployment and considered intra-wall police activity to be of an "administrative" type.
Although with "stable" numbers in malicious websites disabled, we went from 133,469 security incidents handled in 2020 to 46,859 in 2023.
But more than these figures, with around 75 complaints per year for child pornography, we are no longer aware of arrests and deactivation of gangs dedicated to this illicit activity.
The lack of activity and development in this area reduces Mexico's competitiveness in times of a globalized economy, but also represents a risk to the integrity of people and the most vulnerable population, such as minors.
For the Mexican State, it is also a serious threat to National Security, as has already been seen in the cases of information leaks of federal institutions through Guacamaya Leaks.
It is urgent to build an information security agency and shield it from political changes and urgencies, but it must also be an agency with a police character to be able to ministerialize the crimes committed on the network, which for the general imagination, are not committed by a sophisticated criminal locked in a bunker: cybercrime involves organized crime for the purchase of weapons, recruitment, fraud, human trafficking, extortion and other crimes, also committed by "common criminals".
If at the federal level we do not have the tools, in the states there is not much difference, especially with the lack of convening at the central level.
In addition to the absence of profiles, the necessary budgets are not allocated, at the same time Mexico is one of the countries most attacked by cybercrime, we do not have sufficient legislation and the one that was presented is stuck in the Legislative itself.
We have not advanced even in the most basic aspect: education for users and organizations, which opens the door to cybercrime.
Recruiting personnel specialized in cybersecurity, but with a police approach, is extremely difficult; but it is also extremely attractive for the private sector and that is where many ended up in order to get a better deal and a better salary. And therein lies the investment of the Mexican State that is urgent to recover and protect from occurrences.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()