Global Cybercrime Mafias Target Mexican Businesses
Only a meager 5% of cyberattacks affecting Mexican businesses originate from within the country. The remaining 95% comes from abroad, primarily orchestrated by global cybercrime mafias from countries such as the United States, Brazil, China, Russia, and Eastern European nations.
Who is Carlos Torales?
Carlos Torales, Vice President of Cloudflare for Latin America, highlighted this concerning trend during a press conference. His organization specializes in digital infrastructure and cybersecurity, operating across more than 330 cities worldwide and serving various Mexican industries, including e-commerce and online gambling.
Cyberattacks on the Rise in Mexico
Mexico experienced over 1.77 billion cyberattacks in just the first quarter of 2025, equating to 59 million attacks per day—a 65% increase from the previous quarter.
Global Attack Routes
Torales explained, “Attacks can originate in China, pass through servers in Russia and Brazil, and ultimately target Mexican servers. The most efficient approach is to contain the attack at its source, rather than waiting for it to reach Mexico.”
Digital Growth Fuels Cyberattacks
Mexico’s digital growth—with 100 million internet users by 2024—has made it an increasingly attractive target for cybercriminals. Internet traffic in Mexico surged 23% in Q1, while daily requests to websites protected by Cloudflare’s platform exceeded 69 billion—a 47% year-over-year increase.
Vulnerable Sectors
Cloudflare reports that telecommunications, cryptocurrency platforms, education, and recruitment services are among the most targeted sectors in Mexico. Globally, Cloudflare claims to have neutralized up to 247 billion threats daily across its network, managing roughly 20% of global internet traffic.
Phishing and DDoS Attacks
Although phishing remains the most common attack vector (95% of successful incidents start with a malicious email), DDoS attacks have seen the most significant growth in the past year. These attacks aim to overwhelm servers with an avalanche of requests.
DDoS Attack Growth
Globally, DDoS attacks have surged 358% in the past year. Cloudflare reported containing the largest DDoS attack in history—6.5 terabits per second—in April 2025.
AI-Generated Content and Cyberattacks
The rise of AI-generated content (AIG), with tools like ChatGPT and Deepseek, has also caught the attention of cybercriminals. Cloudflare states that over 80% of AIG attacks target chatbots, while image-generation sites account for more than 50% of malicious attempts.
AIG Adoption by Leading Companies
Cloudflare asserts that 78% of the top 50 AIG companies use its infrastructure to develop and safeguard their solutions, including tools from PayPal, Square, and Stripe.
Mexican Companies Embrace Cybersecurity
In Mexico, Bitso and Grupo Caliente have implemented Cloudflare’s solutions to secure internal access and ensure system integrity.
Mixed Results from Tech Investments
Despite tech investments, only 30% of large-scale technology projects meet their time, budget, and scope objectives, according to Cloudflare and BCG studies. The remaining 70% either fail completely or partially, often due to complex digital infrastructures and insufficient data visibility.
Challenges in Digitalization
“Most companies operate with legacy systems not designed to work together, complicating digitalization and creating bottlenecks that translate into market loss in competitive environments,” Torales explained.
Future Outlook
Cloudflare anticipates that the volume of cyberattacks will continue to rise in line with Mexico’s digital expansion.
Torales’ Perspective
“We don’t foresee this trend reaching a plateau in the short term. Mexico will remain more digital—and consequently, more vulnerable,” Torales stated.
