The Specialized Fiscal Unit in Cybercrime of Argentina (UFECI) published today a report on the cybercrime in the country and the exponential growth that this modality of scams had in the last five years.
The paper compared the annual rate of cybercrime of 2020 with that of 2021 and found that in the last year electronic scams and cyber attacks nearly quadrupled nationwide.
“During 2020, an overall increase of 70% was reported in the rate of cybercrime reported: 106% in electronic fraud and electronic purchases and 700% in cases of cyberattacks, hacks and identity theft”.
“While in 2021, the increase in the rate of computer incidents was 261%, the highest rate in the last five years”assured the cybersecurity specialist, Pablo Lima, in an interview for the Télam agency.
“We know that by 2022 this type of crime will mark an upward trend and we believe that could directly affect emerging digital trading industries and the cryptocurrency market”, warned the official.
How to protect yourself from cybercrime
According to cybersecurity experts, One of the best alternatives to avoid data theft or account hacking is to have a strong password., which intersperses alphanumeric combinations and the use of signs. In addition, they urge to change the keys regularly.
Likewise, they advise updating the antivirus of mobile devices, implementing security certificates and applying identity authentication mechanisms to limit phishing cases.
Since 2008, Argentina has a special legislative framework to punish computer crimes in the country. This law was approved with a majority vote by the National Congress on June 4, 2008 and published on the 25th of the same month.