A Control Risks, global consultancy specialized in risk management for over 30 years in Brazil, announced on Monday (26) a partnership to offer account security training sessions for high-risk users in Brazil. The goal is to raise awareness and resilience against cyber threats.
The program will focus on audiences who frequently deal with sensitive information and are attractive targets for cybercriminals, such as government institutions, public officials, election campaign staff, politicians, journalists, executives, and NGOs, especially in a context where the country recorded 60 billion cyber-attack attempts last year, according to data from FortiGuard Labs, an intelligence and threat analysis laboratory.
The announcement was made at Google’s headquarters in São Paulo. On the occasion, the platform also presented the project to renovate the Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas (IPT), which will house the new Engineering Center and will also feature the first space dedicated to assistive technologies in Latin America.
During the event, Control Risks also introduced the Advanced Protection Program and Project Shield, two Google initiatives aimed at strengthening the online security of individuals and organizations.
Lucas Silva, director of Control Risks, highlighted the importance of the partnership: “Our goal is to provide training and support so that these more vulnerable groups can protect their accounts and information against cyber attacks. We believe in the importance of education and awareness as a way to strengthen digital security in Brazil”.
During the event, the Director of Research and Partnerships for Latin America at Google, Luciana Cordeiro, emphasized the relevance of collaborations with companies to educate the ecosystem about the existing cybersecurity tools, as well as the constant improvement of mechanisms. “Education is a method of democratizing these tools, especially for groups more prone to virtual attacks,” she highlighted.
In 2023, X-Force saw attackers increasingly investing in operations to obtain user identities, with a 266% increase in information theft malware. Therefore, Silva explains that, at this initial stage, the project’s focus is an advanced protection program focused on electoral campaigns. “Our goal is to provide electoral campaigns, state parties, and organizations with the best practices and tools to protect their digital operations during and after the electoral period in Brazil”.
Control Risks will conduct training courses for the use of security keys and train the most vulnerable groups to use the protection tools and resources provided by Google. “Currently, Brazil is the second country in the world with the highest number of hacker attacks, and we believe in education and awareness, especially in the face of the growing challenges in the cyber threat landscape, as ways to change this scenario,” he states.
