Microsoft intercepted 35.7 billion identity theft or phishing attempts via email last year, warning Friday that identity is “the new battlefield” in the world of cybersecurity. Identity theft or phishing is one of the most common cyber attacks in the world, consisting of gaining the trust of the Internet user through a false identity and thus obtaining secret information such as passwords, social security numbers or credit cards.

In its quarterly publication Cibersignals, Microsoft indicated that it managed to block these 35.7 billion attacks aimed at both companies and individuals through its Defender anti-malware program for Office 365. The Redmond-based firm (Washington state, United States) It also said it had blocked more than 25.6 billion “brute force” attacks against authentication systems on the Internet, but warned that only 20 percent of users have implemented some kind of strong protection of their online identity.

During the first eight months of 2021, cyber attacks in Latin America increased 24 percent year-on-year. The rebound, which came amid a telecommuting boom due to the pandemic, was led by Ecuador, up 75 percent, followed by Peru (+71 percent), Panama (+60 percent), Guatemala (+43 percent) and Venezuela (+29 percent).