By Henrique Rocha, DPO, partner at Peck Advogados
In its 17th published yearbook, the Brazilian Public Security Forum showed that the number of reports of fraud in Brazil has grown by 326,3% since 2018. There were more than 1.819.409 cases reported and, of these, more than 200 records of electronic fraud.
With regard to theft and theft of cell phones, the scenario is no less serious, indicating an increase of 16,6% compared to 2021 and the registration of approximately 1 million devices targeted by criminals.
The State of São Paulo easily leads the recorded numbers of attempted or completed frauds, bringing a total volume of 638.629 records in the year 2022. The State of São Paulo is followed by Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, with numbers of 130.755 and 123.841, respectively.
The report confirms an almost inevitable trend of intensification in dealing with issues related to the information security environment, even in a private or domestic environment.
The increase in new technologies, development of new applications, practices such as the pix and 100% digital accounts demonstrate that there is an undeniable interest from criminal organizations in exploiting this criminal market.
Despite the increase in cases, security recommendations remain the same, for the most part, with sensitive adjustments according to the type of incident mapped.
Maintain discreet use of devices on public roads and places, avoid clicking on links and messages of unknown origin, pay attention to security devices with preferably biometric passwords and do not store them on the device, have different and strong passwords (alphanumeric and with special characters), separate bank accounts from applications and brokerages for a second device and keep it at home, have software for remote erasure and activation, when applicable for the device, of e-Sim in order to keep them connected even when the criminal removes the physical chip, among other measures remain the best applicable to the current moment.
In the post-incident period, the recommendations are to formalize the registration of the police report to help in confronting and building public policies, to activate banks and telephone operators in the first moment and to perform the remote deletion of the device in order to avoid and/or mitigate the use of private information.
The yearbook is rich in information and, unfortunately, it also portrays the migration of crime that moves more and more from the physical to the digital environment.