Continent 8 Technologies Account Director Mario Dealba was interviewed this month by SBC Noticias, the dedicated news portal for the Spanish-speaking gaming industry. Read his insight about the challenges and opportunities presented by the region below or in Spanish at SBC Noticias.
SBC NOTICIAS – Latin America is one of the main regions where users and organizations face cyberattacks. SBCNews spoke with Mario Dealba, Account Director of Continent 8, about the challenges faced by both regulators and gaming and betting companies in computer security.
In an era of enormous cyberattacks and data leaks, information security is critical for the competitiveness of products and services. The digital transformation that the gaming and betting sector is experiencing requires the implementation of new technologies in order to adapt to the demands of the current market.
In this context, more and more companies are using the software and network provided by Continent 8, which manages the data of millions of customers. In addition to protecting data, Continent 8 also offers sophisticated shields capable of repelling DDoS cyberattacks that can crash servers by inundating them with information. Such attacks can have political, criminal and economic motivations. In commercial wars, everything goes.
As several Latin American countries move towards the regulation of online gambling and sports betting, it is imperative that governments understand that the prevention of cyber risks is crucial for the survival of the sector.
Mario Dealba, Account Director at Continent 8, remarks:
“Latin America has a fairly high number of programmers and hackers. It is a region where cyberattacks are normal and frequent. Brazil, for example, is one of the countries where most DDoS attacks in the world come from. Countries that are developing regulations have to take that into account and not underestimate the risks they could undertake by not requiring some kind of data protection and public cloud systems.”
Some regulatory frameworks state that servers must be located within the country where they operate for inspection, storage, and provision of information at the request of competent state administration agencies. “I don’t think this really helps avoid risks, but I do believe that regulatory bodies should have a list of technical requirements such as firewalls, DDoS Attack Detection and Prevention Systems, monitoring of and direct access to data banks… In turn, there should be a list of three or four accredited network and data center providers, so that everyone follows a well-defined standard, ” he adds.
For Dealba, the regulation of online gaming in Colombia issued by Coljuegos in 2016 was the initial kick for other countries to be encouraged to take a step forward. In this sense, he points out that “right now, we are monitoring what is happening in Mexico and Brazil. These are two giant economies that already have a long list of online operators.” He adds that he hopes in 2020 “the regulation will come out in Brazil, Argentina and Peru” to “formalize the industry and give users more assurances.”
Continent 8 has more than 20 years of experience and provides services to more than 160 customers in the online sector. It has approximately 50 locations in its data center network today and has “several points of presence” in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
“The goal is to open new points of presence in Latin America by the beginning of 2020,” says Dealba. The first will be in Colombia, where Continent 8 already has everything ready to start operations. “We also want to expand to Mexico and Brazil,” he says. “Continent 8 is not just a data center company. Our expertise as a specialized private global network in the gaming world positions us as a strategic ally for gaming and betting companies, enabling them to operate quickly and safely throughout the world,” he says.
Outside Latin America, the company will aim to strengthen its growth in the United States. “The market has developed a lot in the country. I am convinced that in the next twelve months more states will begin to legalize online betting,” he says.
Finally, Dealba believes that “2020 will be an interesting year, with a lot of growth and new opportunities for the sector worldwide.”
