Mexico is one of the Latin American countries that recorded the most cyber attack attempts in the first half of this year. According to Fortinet, a cybersecurity firm, the country experienced 85,000 million cyberattack attempts from January to June, which implies a 40% increase over the same period last year.
Since 2019, various government agencies have been hacked: Pemex, National Lottery, Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Bancomext, Ministry of Economy, and Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). The last one is the Minister of National Defense.
Given this scenario, the deputy revealed that he was seeking to promote the Federal Cybersecurity Act as a national security issue, which would imply that the Army is part of it. It will also require training for prosecutors, public ministries, as well as all judicial personnel. “The Federal Cybersecurity Act will provide greater technological tools (to the armed forces) to be able to execute and prosecute cybercrimes.”
The new National Cyber Security Agency?
Casarín revealed that the bill also aims to establishment of the National Cyber Security Agencywhich will be tasked with protecting against computer attacks, both from the public and private sectors and will be controlled by the Executive.
“In the proposal, efforts will be made to establish a National Cyber Security Agency, but this is later because it implies investment to create a new government entity. Other countries facing this problem (hacking) have seen that they need an area that can unify or have control over what is happening in the country”, assured the official.
Currently, Italy, the UK, the European Union, the United States, and Brazil are some of the places where they have units dedicated to cybersecurity issues.
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