Introduction
On May 14, 2017, the UK’s National Health Service systems collapsed within hours. Hospitals canceled surgeries, doctors lost access to medical records, and patients were diverted to other emergency centers. The culprit wasn’t an army of hackers working for weeks: it was malware that spread on its own in minutes, exploiting a vulnerability that had been patched for two months.
That attack, known as WannaCry, infected more than 230,000 systems in 150 countries in a single day and became the most brutal reminder of what ransomware can do when it finds the right conditions.
Nearly a decade later, ransomware didn’t disappear. It evolved. It became more professional. And Latin America, historically underestimated as a target, became one of the regions with the fastest-growing number of attacks in the world.
This article explains what ransomware is, how it works, what is happening in the region, and, above all, what a company can do to protect itself in a concrete and effective way.
What is ransomware?
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts the files on a system or an entire network, rendering them inaccessible to their owners. Once the encryption is complete, the attackers demand a ransom in exchange for the key that allows the data to be recovered.
The name says it all: ransom means ransom. It is, in essence, a digital kidnapping.
What makes ransomware especially devastating isn’t just the file encryption. It’s the combination of factors that accompanies it. Systems become immediately unusable, paralyzing business operations. Recovery without paying the ransom can take days or weeks, during which the company cannot operate normally. And in the most sophisticated attacks, data is also exfiltrated before being encrypted, adding a second threat: if the ransom isn’t paid, the confidential information is published on the dark web.
How a ransomware attack works
Understanding the mechanism of an attack helps to understand why traditional defenses are not always sufficient.
A modern ransomware attack typically follows a sequence that specialists call a kill chain, the chain of events that goes from the first point of entry to the final encryption.
The entry point is almost always one of three vectors: a phishing email with a malicious attachment or a link that leads to a page that installs malware, a vulnerability in outdated software that allows the attacker to enter the system without user interaction, or stolen or leaked credentials that allow access to remote access systems such as RDP or VPN.
The latency period is perhaps the most unsettling aspect of modern ransomware. Once inside a system, the malware doesn’t act immediately. It can take days, weeks, or even months before encryption is activated. During that time, the attacker silently scans the network, maps systems, identifies the most valuable data, deletes any backups they can reach, and ensures they have the widest possible reach before revealing their presence.
Encryption occurs when the attacker decides they are ready. In the most sophisticated attacks, it is executed simultaneously on hundreds or thousands of devices within the organization, maximizing the impact and reducing the possibility of containment.
The extortion comes in the form of a note that appears on the screens of affected systems, with payment instructions and a deadline. In the more organized ransomware groups, there is even a customer service department to negotiate the ransom.
The outlook in Latin America: a region in the spotlight
For years, Latin America was considered a secondary target for ransomware groups. That has changed significantly in recent years.
According to data from Kaspersky’s 2024 threat report, Latin America saw more than 1.1 million ransomware attack attempts in a single year, equivalent to approximately 3,000 attempts per day. Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Argentina accounted for the majority of incidents, but no country in the region was immune.
High-profile cases are piling up. In 2022, the Costa Rican government suffered an attack by the Conti Group that paralyzed multiple ministries and forced the country to declare a national emergency. In Chile, the judiciary was the victim of an attack in 2022 that compromised more than 360 gigabytes of information. In Argentina, PAMI, the country’s largest health insurance provider for retirees, suffered an attack in 2023 that exposed the data of millions of members. In Colombia, Keralty, the company that operates the Sanitas health network, was attacked in 2022, affecting the care of thousands of patients.
Why has Latin America become an increasingly common target? The reasons are numerous and mutually reinforcing. The rapid digitization of recent years has greatly expanded the attack surface without a corresponding increase in cybersecurity investment. The widespread use of unlicensed or outdated software leaves vulnerabilities open that have already been patched in other markets. And the weak cybersecurity culture in many organizations makes phishing attacks, the most common entry vector, particularly effective.
The most active ransomware groups in the region
Ransomware is no longer the work of lone hackers. It’s an organized industry with sophisticated business models.
The dominant model is called Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) : malware developers rent it out to affiliated groups that carry out attacks and share the profits. This allows people with limited technical skills to conduct sophisticated attacks using tools developed by others.
The groups that have been most active in Latin America in recent years include LockBit , one of the most prolific globally and with numerous victims in the region; BlackCat/ALPHV , known for its technical sophistication and for using double extortion techniques; Cl0p , which has attacked financial and educational institutions in several Latin American countries; and Medusa , a more recent group that has grown rapidly with attacks in multiple countries in the region.
These groups have organizational structures, negotiation teams, and in some cases even policies regarding which sectors not to target. They are, in every relevant sense, professional criminal organizations.
Why traditional antivirus is no longer enough
One of the most dangerous misconceptions in cybersecurity is believing that having antivirus software installed equates to being protected against ransomware. This is not the case, and understanding why is crucial for making better security decisions.
Traditional antivirus software works by comparing files against a database of known threats. If the malware matches a registered signature, it blocks it. If it doesn’t match, it lets it through.
The problem is that ransomware groups constantly modify their code to avoid matching any known signature. A new ransomware can circulate for days without being detected by any antivirus software. And many modern attack techniques don’t use malicious files at all: they execute code directly in memory, using legitimate operating system tools, in a way that conventional antivirus software simply can’t see.
Effective protection against modern ransomware requires a layered approach, where multiple controls complement each other to cover each other’s blind spots.
How to protect your business: a layered approach
The first layer: behavior-based detection
Instead of searching for known threats, modern solutions analyze process behavior in real time. When a process starts encrypting files en masse, communicating with unknown external servers, or attempting to disable security tools, the system detects it as anomalous and stops it, even if it has never encountered that malware before.
Bitdefender GravityZone is one of the platforms that most consistently appears in independent threat detection rankings. Its ransomware protection module includes behavioral detection, automatic remediation that can revert changes made by malware before it is stopped, and targeted protection of backup processes to prevent ransomware from deleting them before activation. For medium and large enterprises that need to manage the security of many endpoints from a central console, GravityZone offers visibility and control over the entire infrastructure from a single dashboard.
Heimdal Security complements this protection from a different layer. Its Threat Prevention module operates at the DNS and network layer, blocking communication between malware and its command and control servers before an attack can be executed. Most modern ransomware needs to communicate with an external server to receive encryption keys; if that communication is severed, the attack cannot be completed. Heimdal also automates patch management, eliminating one of the most frequent causes of infection.
The second layer: backup and recovery
If the first layer fails, the backup is what determines whether a company survives a ransomware attack or not. And not just any backup: one that the ransomware cannot reach and delete.
Ransomware groups know this. One of their first actions upon gaining access to a system is to search for and delete local backups and virtualization system snapshots. If they succeed, the only remaining option is to pay the ransom.
The answer to this is immutable cloud backups : copies that, once created, cannot be modified or deleted for a certain period, not even by someone with administrator credentials.
Acronis Cyber Protect combines backup with malware protection in a single platform. Its immutable cloud backup functionality ensures that a copy of your data is always available, one that ransomware cannot access. It also includes malware detection built into the backup process, preventing an infected copy from restoring the problem along with the data. For businesses looking to simplify their security stack, combining protection and backup in a single tool offers significant operational value.
The third layer: access and credentials management
A significant proportion of ransomware attacks enter through compromised credentials, whether through phishing, data breaches, or brute-force attacks against remote access systems with weak passwords.
Reducing this risk requires two basic controls that many companies still haven’t implemented. The first is multi-factor authentication for all critical access points: remote access systems, corporate email, and administration panels. The second is centralized password management to ensure that corporate credentials are unique, complex, and not reused across multiple systems.
The fourth layer: team training
Technology can cover many attack vectors, but phishing remains the most frequent entry point in ransomware attacks, and phishing relies on a person clicking on something they shouldn’t.
Security training isn’t a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process that includes phishing simulations, training on how to recognize suspicious emails, and clear protocols on what to do when someone receives something dubious. Organizations that invest in this process measurably reduce their phishing-related incident rate.
What to do if your company has already been attacked
If, despite precautions, a ransomware attack succeeds, the way the organization responds in the first few hours largely determines the extent of the damage.
The first step is to immediately isolate the affected systems from the network to prevent the ransomware from spreading further. Disconnecting compromised computers from the network, even if they are in the middle of important processes, is the right decision.
The second thing is not to shut down the affected systems. Counterintuitively, shutting them down can destroy evidence in memory that may be useful for later forensic analysis and, in some cases, for attempting to recover encryption keys.
The third step is to contact incident response specialists before making any other decisions, including whether or not to pay the ransom. Organizations like No More Ransom, a joint project of Europol and multiple security companies, maintain a repository of decryption keys for many known ransomware variants. In some cases, recovery is possible without paying.
The fourth point is not to pay the ransom if there is another alternative. Beyond the ethical implications of funding criminal organizations, payment does not guarantee data recovery: a significant number of companies that pay do not receive the keys or receive keys that do not work correctly.
Conclusion
Ransomware is one of the most concrete and costly threats facing Latin American businesses today. It is not an abstract threat, nor is it limited to large corporations: ransomware groups attack any organization they perceive as vulnerable, regardless of its size or sector.
The good news is that protection is possible and doesn’t require exorbitant budgets. It requires a layered approach where behavioral detection, immutable backups, access management, and team training work together to reduce both the likelihood of a successful attack and its impact should one occur.
No single tool guarantees complete protection. But the right combination of controls can make the difference between a contained incident and a business-crisis.
Do you want to assess your company’s ransomware vulnerability? At aufieroinformatica.com you can consult with our cybersecurity specialists.
