According to Check Point Research’s Global Threat Intelligence insights, Latin America recorded the most significant year-over-year increase in cyberattacks globally, with an estimated 108% rise, averaging 2,640 weekly attacks per organization. To put this into perspective, the global average during the same period remained closer to 1,900 attacks per week.
This statistic is striking on its own—but in practice, what we consistently observe across the region is even more concerning: attackers are no longer prioritizing scale alone. They are prioritizing context, identity, and personal exposure.
For high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and family offices in Latin America, this is not a theoretical risk or a distant enterprise problem. It is a direct signal that personal digital security—often fragmented across devices, advisors, and jurisdictions—has become a primary attack surface.
The 2025 Reality: A Region Under Sustained Pressure
Data published throughout 2025 confirms what many practitioners have seen firsthand: cyber threats in Latin America are no longer episodic. They are persistent, adaptive, and increasingly targeted.
Rather than isolated campaigns, the region is experiencing a steady escalation driven by three converging factors:
- Rapid digital adoption without proportional security maturity
- Structural gaps in regulation, talent, and coordination
- The accelerating use of AI by threat actors to personalize attacks
The Leadership Paradox: Confidence Without Cadence
One of the most revealing findings comes from regional cybersecurity analyses shared by Endeavor in 2025. While approximately 65% of organizations in Latin America report feeling prepared to face cyber threats, only a small fraction demonstrate continuous oversight:
- Roughly 17% review their cybersecurity posture on a monthly or ongoing basis
- Nearly 10% report never having conducted a formal cybersecurity review
This confidence gap is not benign. In our experience, it creates precisely the conditions attackers exploit—static defenses paired with predictable behavior.
Country-Level Exposure: Where Digital Growth Attracts Risk
Threat intelligence published by Positive Technologies and regional risk data referenced in Aon’s Global Cyber Risk Report 2025 show a clear concentration of activity in the region’s most digitized economies.
Across recent reporting periods:
- Brazil and Mexico consistently account for the largest share of recorded incidents, followed by Colombia and Argentina
- Brazil alone represents nearly half of reported cyber incidents in Latin America, with Mexico accounting for roughly one quarter
Higher digital adoption has expanded opportunity—but also the attack surface.
The Financial Impact: Time Is the Real Cost
According to the IBM–Ponemon Institute 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a breach in Latin America reached approximately USD 3.8 million, while the average time to identify and contain an incident approached nine months.
That delay matters. Not because systems remain unavailable—but because attackers retain prolonged access to sensitive data, communications, and identities, often long before detection occurs.
Why Latin America Has Become a Prime Target
Several structural characteristics make the region particularly attractive to cybercriminals.
Digital Expansion Without Security Depth
The World Bank has identified Latin America and the Caribbean as one of the fastest-growing regions for disclosed cyber incidents over the past decade. The challenge is not digitalization itself—it is the mismatch between speed of adoption and depth of security investment.
Regulatory Fragmentation
The 2025 OAS–IDB Cybersecurity Report, developed with Oxford’s Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre, highlights uneven maturity across countries. While progress is evident, gaps in resources, talent development, and cross-sector coordination persist—especially across borders.
SME Dominance
With over 99% of businesses classified as small or medium-sized enterprises, underinvestment in cybersecurity remains common. For cybercriminals, these environments often serve as entry points to higher-value individuals and assets.
High-Net-Worth Individuals: A Compounded Risk Profile
For wealthy families and family offices, regional vulnerabilities intersect with personal exposure in ways traditional cybersecurity models rarely address.
- Limited specialized expertise: Many family offices still rely on legacy infrastructure and ad hoc controls
- Cross-border complexity: Assets, residences, and advisors span jurisdictions with inconsistent protections
- Perception gaps: A 2025 Mastercard-commissioned survey across multiple Latin American markets indicated that while most consumers feel confident online, nearly half cite fraud and scams as their primary digital concern—highlighting a disconnect between confidence and resilience
How Attacks Succeed: Dominant Vectors in the Region
Ransomware and Access Brokers
CrowdStrike’s regional threat intelligence documented continued growth in ransomware victims across Latin America, alongside a sharp increase in access broker activity. The declining cost of initial access has lowered the barrier for sophisticated attacks.
Infostealers as the Precursor
Check Point and Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report confirm a critical pattern: credentials stolen via infostealers frequently appear in ransomware incidents within days. This compression of time has reshaped the economics of cybercrime.
Phishing and Social Engineering
Regional studies consistently identify phishing as the most pervasive threat. What has changed is not volume, but precision—with attackers exploiting trusted brands, personal routines, and AI-generated content to bypass skepticism.
Looking Ahead to 2026: The Accelerants
Artificial Intelligence
The OAS–IDB Cybersecurity Report and Check Point’s AI Security research both emphasize AI as a force multiplier. In practical terms, this means:
- Hyper-personalized phishing
- Deepfake-enabled impersonation
- Automated reconnaissance and exploitation
For individuals, this blurs the line between digital fraud and real-world consequences.
Geopolitical Spillover
Threat intelligence throughout 2024 and 2025 shows ideologically and geopolitically motivated activity increasingly intersecting with financially driven campaigns—adding volatility for families with international exposure.
Why Personal Cybersecurity Requires a Different Model
Enterprise cybersecurity frameworks were never designed to protect families, identities, reputations, and cross-border lifestyles. They optimize for systems—not people.
In Latin America, where specialized personal cybersecurity services remain limited, this gap is especially pronounced.
The Ares One Perspective
At Ares One, we see these patterns daily. Effective protection for high-net-worth individuals in Latin America requires:
- Continuous human-led monitoring informed by regional context
- AI-powered detection focused on identity and exposure—not just infrastructure
- Dark web and underground ecosystem surveillance
- Integrated protection across family, enterprise, and advisors
- Cross-border operational coordination
This is not about reacting faster—it is about seeing earlier.
Key Takeaways for 2026
- Latin America faces disproportionate cyber risk
- Confidence without continuous evaluation is dangerous
- Speed of detection is now decisive
- AI is reshaping both offense and defense
- Personal risk demands personal security models
- Cross-border exposure requires specialized expertise
Conclusion
The convergence of 2025 data and 2026 projections points to a clear conclusion: cyber risk in Latin America is no longer abstract, and for high-net-worth individuals, it is deeply personal.
The 108% increase is not merely a statistic—it reflects a structural shift in how and why attacks occur. In 2026, personal cybersecurity must evolve from an afterthought into a core pillar of wealth, reputation, and family protection.
At Ares One, we believe the future of cybersecurity in Latin America lies not in louder alarms—but in earlier insight, deeper context, and protection designed for people, not just systems.ca.
Uriel Peña
Cybersecurity Consultant | Arestech
Enterprise-grade protection in a single cybersecurity platform — Comprehensive. Managed. Simple.
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