Ransomware in Latin America: The Attack That Set Off Alarms in September

The first week of September brought an alert that traveled across the region. According to El Comercio, a mid-size logistics company operating in Colombia and Peru suffered a ransomware attack that encrypted its billing and shipment-tracking systems for nearly four days, forcing it to operate with spreadsheets and phone calls while negotiating with the attackers. itahora reported that the incident rekindled alarm among Ecuadorian SMEs, several of which admitted they had no response plan for this kind of attack.

What went wrong, according to reports

The public details agree on a familiar pattern: initial access came through a phishing email aimed at an administrative employee, with no multi-factor authentication to stop the use of stolen credentials. From there, the attackers moved laterally through the network for several days undetected —the company had no segmentation between its operational area and its critical billing systems— until they encrypted both the production servers and much of the backup data, which was connected to the same network and therefore encrypted too. That last point, according to experts cited by El Comercio, is what turned a serious incident into a crisis: without isolated backups, the company was left with two options, pay or rebuild from scratch.

Why this isn't a big-company-only problem

The perception that ransomware only targets large corporations is precisely what makes it so effective against SMEs. Attackers automate target reconnaissance and prioritize companies with weak security over companies with lots of money: an Ecuadorian SME with a single billing server, no separate backups, and no MFA is an easier target than a multinational with a dedicated security team, even if the ransom demanded is smaller. And for a company that size, four days without systems can mean weeks of recovery and lost customers.

What your SME should do right now

• Isolated, tested backups. Backup copies that aren't permanently connected to the production network (offline or immutable), with restores tested periodically, not just configured and forgotten.
• Multi-factor authentication everywhere critical. Corporate email, VPN, administrative access, and billing systems shouldn't rely on a password alone.
• Network segmentation. Separating the administrative network from the operational and guest networks limits how far an attacker can move if they get in.
• A written incident response plan. Knowing who to call, what to isolate first, and how to communicate with customers in the first hours is the difference between a controlled incident and days of chaos.
• Continuous monitoring. Most ransomware attacks show signs days or weeks before final encryption; without 24/7 monitoring, those signs go unnoticed.

How We Approach It at SimCodec

At SimCodec we help Ecuadorian SMEs close exactly these gaps: we design segmented network architectures, implement video surveillance and access control, and offer 24/7 infrastructure monitoring to catch anomalous behavior before it becomes an incident. We also work alongside our strategic partner EPIC on backup and business-continuity strategies sized to each company's real needs, not a corporate standard nobody will maintain.

If your company has never tested what would happen if its systems were encrypted tomorrow, now is a good time to find out before an attacker does. Reach out at simcod.ec/es/contacto.