A few days after the end of APEC Economic Leaders’ Week, the APEC Peru 2024 chair shared it successfully  contained over half a million cyberattacks during the event held in Lima from September 9 to 16, adding another achievement during the meeting, on top of the 20 documents unanimously adopted by consensus during Peru’s lead of the forum.

“We met the cybersecurity standards set forth to protect APEC Peru 2024 critical systems, so that leaders, delegations and media could have uninterrupted access to  all the IT resources during the Economic Leaders’ Week, including websites, the accreditation system and the wireless network, in addition to ensuring all personal data and sensitive information were protected,” said Ambassador Carlos Chávez-Taffur, Head of the Presidency of the APEC Peru 2024 Working Group.

Remarkable accomplishments included blocking more than 450,000 malicious requests to access the accreditation system and the website, protecting the system against almost 1,000 malicious attacks aimed at the Lima Convention Center and the Ministry of Culture’s IT infrastructure, both venues of the Economic Leaders’ Week. Likewise, the accreditation system and the website were up 100% of time, even during peak traffic (up to two million requests per hour).

“This is the first time that a government agency, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the APEC Peru 2024 Working Group, has coordinated cybersecurity and cyberdefense efforts with other sectors,” said Ambassador Chávez-Taffur, referring to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM), the Armed Forces (FFAA), the National Intelligence Directorate (DINI) and the National Police of Peru (PNP).

Cybersecurity and cyberdefense measures at APEC Peru 2024

Ambassador Chávez-Taffur revealed PCM and DINI reports in August and September had warned of potential cyberattacks during APEC Economic Leaders’ Week by so-called hacktivists, cyberterrorists, cybercriminals and cyberwarriors. While having different motivations and purposes, cybercriminals have demonstrated high skill and use of cutting-edge technology to commit cybercrimes at major events such as APEC.

In the face of threats of cyberattacks, the Information Technology team of the APEC Peru 2024 Working Group, in coordination with PCM, FFAA, DINI and PNP, set up specialized groups to detect digital security incidents, analyze vulnerabilities, search for threats in cyberspace and monitor the wireless network, together with the escalation and communication schemes  between these teams it designed and put into practice.