Privacy And Cybersecurity Developments In Latin America

The Situation: Latin American governments, business leaders, and legal advisors continue to address privacy and cybersecurity concerns.

The Result: The development and implementation of privacy-focused regulations is a priority throughout the region.

Looking Ahead: Latin America appears to be on track for the implementation of EU-influenced comprehensive data protection regimes.

As is the case in most of the world's industrialized regions, Latin America's policymakers, industry leaders, and legal practitioners are giving significant attention to privacy, data breach, and cybersecurity matters. The ever-increasing acceleration in the introduction of new technologies, and the potential problems and liability related to compromised information, has raised these concerns to an even greater level. This Jones Day Commentary outlines recent developments in Latin America's privacy and cybersecurity landscape.

Danger Ahead?

Industry players see dangers in the unrestricted use of data and in possible cybersecurity breaches related to new technologies. Cybersecurity and related technologies, along with technological developments in areas like blockchain and digital currencies, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and the cloud, are under careful analysis by regulators and companies in the region, and they are expected to drive the legal industry in the coming years.

Cyberattacks Remain a Serious Concern

Banco de Mexico issued a statement that three banks experienced "incidents" with the Interbank Electronic Payment System known as SPEI, requiring them to connect under contingency schemes. The incidents caused significant interruption and delays in banking transfers, although the system infrastructure and client deposits apparently were not affected.

Although the cyberattack was not successful, it came just a few months after hackers attempted to steal funds from Bancomex, the export-import bank of the Mexican government. In addition, the Colombian Industrial Cybersecurity Center recently published a study detailing the increase of data breach incidents. All this came as a reminder that these issues are very real in the region, and they indicate that many individual companies, and the financial services industry, remain unprepared.

New Fintech Law

Mexico and Brazil lead the development of financial technology institutions ("Fintech") in the region.

Mexico's new Fintech law illustrates the importance new technologies are acquiring in...