"Official site validator" will seek to prevent electronic scams

Faced with an increase in the number of electronic scams during 2020, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), makes the validator of official sites https://sitiosoficial.gob.go.cr/ available to Costa Ricans .

By means of a written warning and also color codes, the user will be alerted if the site entered is official or, on the contrary, has been reported for spoofing.

Currently, Costa Rica is in fifth place in America in Cybersecurity according to the National Cybersecurity Index, which includes 160 countries, our country is only preceded by the United States, Paraguay, Chile and Canada.

However, from January to October of the current year, more than 290 false websites have been reported to the Costa Rica Computer Security Incident Response Center (CSIRT-CR).

In this regard, Antit has remained at the forefront with the implementation of biometric security in the architecture of its applications, as well as sophisticated identification and authentication systems.

During 2020 the banking industry has suffered significant attacks around the world, according to the findings of IBM Secuti and the cost of cyber data breaches amounts to $ 8.2 million.‍

“Digitization is a trend that will continue to intensify. We ensure that people have the knowledge and tools necessary to live this digital transformation in a safe way; This is part of the knowledge that needs to be strengthened through digital literacy ”, said Paola Vega Castillo, Minister of Science, Technology and Telecommunications.

Phishing is one of the most used methods and refers to computer fraud through email, it is a fraudulent process that seeks to obtain passwords or financial information through deception.

They pretend to be legitimate emails and impersonate companies or government agencies.

In the case of Antit, our applications use biometric security to automate processes and provide greater security to our users based on the latest technology for this.

FinTechs have made use of this technology to make it easier for financial institutions to verify a user's identity.

On the other hand, Costa Rica as part of the VI Ministerial Meeting on Digital Government, which is held with the authorities of the Member States of the Electronic Government Network of Latin America and the Caribbean (Red Gealc), the Declaration was signed from San jose.

The main agreements include:

• The Execution Report of the 2020 Work Plan and the 2021 Work Plan were approved with the incorporation of a line of work in Cybersecurity proposed by Costa Rica, in addition to the already existing ones of cross-border public services, open data, innovation and technologies emerging.
• Similarly, it was confirmed that digital transformation is essential for the inclusive economic and social reactivation of the region in the face of COVID-19, a reactivation that with the strengthening of the digital government promotes equal opportunities with citizens at the center of policies public.

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