Iberdrola and Santander: victims of cybercrime

Cybercrime is a growing phenomenon, mainly affecting the business sector. Recently, two well-known companies in Spain were cyber-attacked: Iberdrola and Santander.

Iberdrola, known for being the largest electricity supplier in Spain, suffered the risk of exposure of personal data such as the full name, ID number and e-mail addresses of 850,000 customers, 600,000 direct and 250,000 derived from the marketing company Curenergía, as confirmed by the company Xataka.

For its part, the multinational financial company Santander was the victim of a cyber-attack that extracted data from 30 million customers, as well as 64 million account details with their respective balances and the numbers of 28 million credit cards, corresponding to its offices in Spain, Chile and Uruguay. They also detected access to the data of all its employees and some former staff.

According to information from Xataka, the extracted data was put up for sale on the Dark Web's BreachForums for a value of 30 BTC, or its equivalent at the current exchange rate, 2 million dollars.

In response, both companies have implemented emergency measures, notifying affected customers and working with authorities to mitigate the impact of the attack. These incidents underline the growing threat of cybercrime and the need to strengthen digital security strategies in large corporations. The vulnerability of sensitive data puts the privacy of millions of users at risk, demanding a robust and coordinated response between the private and public sector.

Cybersecurity: a necessity for companies

Due to this type of incidents, the AIR Institute, together with CIBERIA project, focuses on promoting a culture based on cybersecurity in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises through cybersecurity training and exchanges. Thus, it supports the digital transformation of SMEs across borders between Spain and Portugal, as well as their economic growth.