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Mike Morrison, who has been with the company since 2015 serving as vice president and general manager for Enterprise Solutions US&C (US & Canada) , has assumed leadership responsibility for Enterprise Solutions Latin America after former Latin America head Eduardo Almeida left the company late last year. Mauricio Cataneo, who has been with the company since 2006 as vice president and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Latin America, has taken on the additional role of general manager of Unisys in Brazil, which accounts for the largest Unisys operation in Latin America and is among the three largest company markets worldwide.

“This move creates a $1 billion revenue region between US&C, and Latin America that is both scalable with great brands and features numerous strong relationships,” said Morrison. “The new regional alignment is designed to create synergies between projects developed in both regions, as well as achieve gains in scale and better use of resources in order to achieve the company’s long-term growth goals.”

The Pennsylvania based IT services provider has been struggling on several fronts. Its Latin America & Caribbean revenues fell 17% last year, while the US government business being sold to SAIC grew by 27% in 2019. Last week, the company reported a 2019 net loss of $17.2 million USD.

“This cross-regional consolidation will be very beneficial in terms of process simplification, resource optimization and the sharing of best practices,” said Cataneo. “It will increase our competitiveness in Brazil and throughout Latin America, allowing us to focus on those key markets where we see greater business opportunities and plan to intensify our presence.”

Unisys earlier in February announced that it was selling its US federal government contracting business to Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) for $1.2 billion USD. The company’s weak balance sheet has prevented it from bidding or participating in several larger, complex government IT contracts.

Unisys also faces an unfunded pension deficit of $1.7 billion USD. CEO Peter Altabef (above, right) says that proceeds from the sale of the government unit will go towards funding this pension deficit and shoring up the firm’s balance sheet. Paying down debt and pension obligations “really moves us from a company that had some challenges in its capital structure to a company that is frankly now advantaged in its capital structure,” Altabef said.

Above photo: Unisys CEO Peter Altabef (r) with the article author

Signed in the third quarter of 2019, the contract calls for Unisys to provide Bancolombia with a wide range of secure digital workplace services, including service desk and field services. Unisys will provide support for approximately 4,500 monthly incidents across more than 900 branches in Colombia, and more than 6,000 merchants with point-of-sale capabilities.

Unisys is also providing Bancolombia with Stealth(identity) biometric identity management software to support critical transactions including password reset in core systems and credit card support in help desk, as well as secure access control and password reset for core banking systems.

The new agreement was signed after the “V Version of Bancolombia Suppliers and Strategic Allies Event,” a ceremony that took place in Medellín in which Unisys was recognized as the best supplier in the “Customer Experience” category.

“We stand firmly with Bancolombia in support of this critical digital transformation initiative. Our help desk and onsite digital workplace services, combined with our best-in-class security, will enable greater employee productivity so that Bancolombia is able to deliver an optimal, secure experience for their customers,” said Eduardo Almeida (above photo), Unisys vice president and general manager for Latin America. “With this agreement we are building on our strong, long-standing relationship that has contributed to the success of the bank and its subsidiaries for many years and has established Unisys as a strategic ally for the business.”

More than 400 financial institutions worldwide rely on Unisys solutions, and seven of the 10 largest banks in Latin America are Unisys clients.

Mediatek’s Amikam Yalokevsky will bring attendees up to date on cutting edge technologies like 4.5G, EdgeAI, and Narrowband IoT.

With just over a month to go, the Digital Transformation Andes Summit, held at the Habitel Hotel & Convention Center in Bogotá near the El Dorado International Airport has announced exciting new speakers relevant to executives charged with making key strategy and IT decisions in their enterprises.

Amikam Yalokevsky from global technology giant Mediatek will be visiting from the US to present several discussions on Edge AI, or how artificial intelligence in the end device, whether smartphone, tablet, laptop or IoT device, can enable new capabilities in the enterprise. With Edge AI, computation is not limited to constant connectivity to the enterprise network.

José Otero, 5G Americas’ Vice President of Latin America And The Caribbean.

Yalokevsky will also be speaking on narrowband IoT which allows remote devices like smoke detectors or telemetry to communicate; something valuable for industries like agriculture, mining, and petroleum.  Also, Yalokevsky will present on 4.5G technologies.

Many have heard about 5G technology, and Digital Transformation Andes’ own keynote speaker, José Otero from 5G Americas will discuss the game changer that 5G will be for The Americas. However, 5G isn’t here yet. Yalokevsky will speak about the bridge technologies such as 4.5G that are close at hand and will provide clear and present short to mid-term benefits for corporate networks and consumers alike.

Frank Casale, Founder of the Outsourcing Institute and IRPA-AI (Photo credit: Loren Moss)

Frank Casale, Founder of both the Institute for Robotics Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence, and the Outsourcing Institute will also visit from the US to speak to the plenary session on the digital landscape in 2020.

The IAOP’s (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) Mauricio Velazquez will discuss the formation of a regional IAOP chapter, with the support of Colombia’s outsourcing trade association BprO, formerly ACDECC, who successfully concluded their own annual industry event.

“We are excited about our lineup of speakers,” said Finance Colombia’s Loren Moss. “A lot of events end up having more vendors than executives or attendees. We want to provide a lot of value for those in attendance, where they leave with valuable takeaways, not just a bunch of sales pitches. We want to provide real value and equip regional companies with the tools and knowledge they need to make wise decisions when it comes to modernization and digital transformation of their enterprises.

Unisys’ world renowned security expert Dr. Carlos Castañeda

Also presenting are security expert Dr. Carlos Castañeda from Unisys, discussing securing the enterprise during and after the migration to the cloud. Esteban Carril of international management consulting firm Chazey Partners will join the event from Brasil to

Chazey Partners’ Esteban Carril

discuss the role of shared services in growing companies as they move from national firms to “multilatinas” or true global enterprises.

Interested sponsors may inquire by contacting Finance Colombia using the contact form here.   More information on the event is available at the event website, Digital Transformation Andes 2019. Team discounts are available for companies that wish to send multiple colleagues. Student discounts for unemployed full-time students are also available.

Habitel offers generous hotel discounts and a special rate only available by reserving at the hotel website here, and using the discount code digital2019

Avianca is offering special discounts for summit attendees using the code GN412 who book on the airline’s website here.

The guest executives, primarily from the financial, travel and business services sectors, focused the discussion on the importance of corporate culture when it comes to cloud adoption. Some Latin American companies have earned a reputation for being laggards rather than leaders when it comes to IT innovation, but the executives in attendance demonstrated that this is not always the case.

“A large number of collaborators from diverse sectors worldwide, believe that Artificial Intelligence will benefit their work environment in the next five years”, according to the New Digital Workplace Research.

The participants exposed the challenges they often face when presenting their value proposition to traditional-minded colleagues who are not up to date on best IT infrastructure practices. Executives pointed out that cloud infrastructures are now safer but require better implementation practices and an extreme security approach. Where Microsoft has established itself as a leader in the cloud Platform as a Service (Paas) and Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas), Unisys has taken the leadership position in enterprise security, especially in sensitive industries such as banking, insurance, and even defense.

The commitment of Unisys to digital transformation in its enterprise and government clients motivated a study that monitors the progress in innovation for workplaces. The study led to an index that analyzes how technology is being used today in this area and explores expectations through the eyes of employees rather than decision makers. Research shows that biometrics and artificial intelligence -AI when properly implemented can lead to a safer and smarter workplace, with this having a positive impact on employee engagement and job satisfaction.

According to the World Economic Forum, AI has the potential to contribute to the economic growth of a country and the Unisys study “Digital Transformation in the Work Environment” backs this up. Many collaborators from all sectors worldwide, believe that AI will benefit their work environment in the next five years. Other data indicates that 47% of people working in the digital area are concerned about their internet security, 45% use their own smartphone in the office and 61% are sharing accounts and passwords with colleagues.

Colombia’s research concludes that those who perceive their employer as an innovator in technology feel positive in relation to their work and devices are the most tangible way to measure how innovative their environment is.

To identify a path for digital maturity aligned to real needs, to start internally to make changes, to ensure that IT support is synonymous with access, to choose the cloud that increases the productivity of the company and to continue with a reliable technology partner are key according to the experts for a successful digital transformation.

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“Some of the most sophisticated application development work we are doing, we are doing right here in Bogotá.” – Peter Altabef of Unisys

During his trip, the New York native was in the country to lend support and expertise to the Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based company’s ongoing push to expand in Latin America.

Loren Moss, executive editor of Finance Colombia, got the chance to catch up with Altabef.

In the following video (with transcript below), the two discuss the Unisys strategy for Colombia, the development talent in the country, and why cybersecurity is now at the core of everything the company does.

Loren Moss: Unisys, I’ve learned, has over 1,000 employees here in Colombia. Why do you have such a big presence? What is the value — or why is Unisys so big on Colombia?

Peter Altabef: Unisys has been big in Colombia for a long time. We are celebrating our 65th anniversary in Colombia — and that is consistent, so we have been there the entire time. We do have over 1,000 people in Colombia, and it’s really for two reasons.

One is because of the vibrancy of the Colombian market. We have wonderful clients here like ISA, like EPM, like Bancolombia. But in addition to those clients we use the R&D talent here and we use the application development talent here to service our team around the world. Some of the most sophisticated application development work we are doing, we are doing right here in Bogotá.

Loren Moss: Wow, wow, I didn’t know that. Unisys announced over a 16% growth in the region, meanwhile the economy here has grown less than 3%. So how is it that Unisys is kind of beating the market? Why is it that Unisys feels that it’s been able to gain this kind of traction here in Latin America and Colombia?

“We really help our clients generate revenue. And if you do that — if you are on the front end of those relationships — that is a very valuable place to be.” – Peter Altabef

Peter Altabef: So, that’s a great question, too. You know, I think first of all you have to ask our clients.

But I will tell you we are not only servicing existing clients, but we are signing new clients at a rate that we have not in a very very long time — if ever. And part of that is our philosophy of putting cybersecurity at the core of all of our solutions.

So, whether it’s financial services, whether it’s retail, whether it’s utilities, whether it’s the energy sector — everything we do has cybersecurity built in from the ground up. And that is not typical, but we think it is gaining a lot of traction now that everyone is focused on cyber security.

Loren Moss: Right, that’s been big. Where do you see the growth sectors? Obviously Unisys has been big in certain markets and government here in Colombia, lik the financial sector and in energy. In Colombia, specifically, and in Latin America, where do you really see the growth opportunity?

Peter Altabef: Well, so in Colombia and in Latin America, I would say our largest sector is financial services, where we are privileged to work with banks throughout the entire hemisphere.

But in addition: energy, retail, utilities, travel and transportation. We work with some of the largest airlines here. So, those would be our core areas of our expertise.

Loren Moss: What are the challenges that businesses are engaging Unisys with to help them address?

Peter Altabef: Well, you know there is a tremendous need to digitize businesses. Virtually every industry is looking at how do they become more efficient — and not only saving money but by asking how do they address the next generation of users, right? How do they address a generation that wants to work on a mobile phone? A generation that looks at a browser on a laptop and says, “That’s okay, but I’d rather use my tablet”? And so our focus is really on that generation.

READ MORE: LatAm Head Eduardo Almeida Has Unisys on Growth Trajectory in a More Digital Colombia

It’s really about how do you help this client turn what is an asset of theirs, which is their industry domain knowledge, into something that can be more powerful by really appealing to their customers. So we really help our clients generate revenue. And if you do that — if you are on the front end of those relationships ‚ that is a very valuable place to be.

To support these efforts, the U.S. information technology and services company recently appointed Eduardo Almeida as its new vice president and general manager of Unisys for Latin America.

Photo: Eduardo Almeida, vice president and general manager of Unisys for Latin America. (Credit: Unisys)

Based in São Paulo, the former Cisco and Genesys executive will be looking for growth in a variety both the public and private sectors in a number of different verticals. To find out more, Finance Colombia Executive Editor Loren Moss recently sat down with Almeida to detail where these opportunities exist and what business segments are becoming the biggest priorities for Unisys in Latin America.

Loren Moss: First of all, welcome. Can you tell me a little bit about Unisys’ current presence in Latin America? Where are the strengths and weaknesses? Where are the opportunities, and where do you see areas that you can make an immediate impact?

Eduardo Almeida: Thank you very much, Loren, for the welcome. Yes, I’m very excited with this opportunity to join an amazing company with around 100 years of tradition in the Latin American region. As a matter of fact, Unisys has been present in Colombia for about 65 years, so we are not a new kid on the block. We know very much how to support the country’s needs to improve productivity, to improve education quality, and to better serve Colombia’s citizens.

I’m feeling very good because there are so many things to be done right now. I arrived to find an amazing organization, an amazing team here — not only in Colombia but across the region. We are excited to increase our presence in the region in the next fiscal year starting in January. In general, we believe that we can make a big difference in the verticals that we have. I would say that we have three pillars: the commercial space where we have different industries, financial services, and government. We want to believe that our solutions can really improve government metrics and our customers’ business outcomes across different industries.

When it comes to serving Colombian customers, we’ve been very successful here, not only with government, but especially in the financial sector business. We were very successful in the last couple of quarters closing new business, and we have had some customers here in the country for many, many years. We have contracts that have been in place for more than 20 years now, so we believe that customers are also valuing the relationship that they have with Unisys. And we have closed some important references here like Avianca and Exito, the supermarket, just to name a few. So the strategy has been successful.

Now, looking ahead, in terms of opportunity, we are right now putting together our strategic plan. We want Unisys Colombia to be a real Colombian company, so we are looking to further our presence here. We are looking at government opportunities with a more strategic approach — a mid- to long-term approach. We want to partner with government, not only in the traditional space of technology, but making sure that in the long run — and I mean three or five years from now — we have a more valuable presence in the country.

Loren Moss: What are some specific types of initiatives that may be in the future?

“Argentina is really considering technology and digitalization as a country strategy. And, for the first time, we see Colombia having a digital agenda in terms of government.” – Eduardo Almeida

Eduardo Almeida: Helping the government to improve citizens’ experience dealing with technology in public services in the country will make a big difference to us. When we see investment in space like digital cities, Internet of Things (IoT), and Big Data analytics, a company like Unisys can serve this country better by being close to government agencies and offering the best technology to allow government to leverage those services to the citizens. So, this is pretty much what we are considering here: How we are segmenting the industry.

We are digging a little bit deeper in terms of knowing what the country’s aspirations are and determining how Unisys can play a relevant role in supporting those aspirations to make them a reality. I know this is a pretty 30,000-feet-deep perspective, but this is where we are going now.

Loren Moss: Understood. Now, you mentioned having a bigger presence in Colombia, and it’s interesting because Unisys, if I’m not mistaken, you have a “Development and Excellence Center” there in Bogotá. And, here outside of Medellin, in Rionegro, you have, an operations center that — at least the the last time I was there — has around 400 people. But I think that you have expanded and grown that operation since then. Am I correct?

Eduardo Almeida: You are right and you are very precise. We do have this presence in Rionegro and Medellín. We are expanding that, and we are expanding based on the contracts we have closed recently with some customers. Some of them were mentioned to you previously, and they reflect the expansions that we are making Rionegro and in Medellín.

Now, as far as Bogota, we are kicking up the presence, which is more connected to the financial services industry. We are just hiring two guys here to help us expand business in this vertical — a cornerstone to Unisys in Colombia. So, yes, we are expanding. But more than that, what we are doing now is to realign our organization, which is pretty big. You can imagine. We have 1,200 people working in Colombia today for Unisys.

So we are no longer talking only about enterprise computing — we are talking about mobility, we are talking about cloud services, application services, we are talking about Big Data analytics. And we need to serve our customers in these different technologies, with these different technologies, according to their demands. We are making sure that we invest our talent where our customers expect Unisys to invest. We see this big market transition now.

For a company like us with such a big investment in the country, and our number of people, it’s not very easy to turn around the organization to reposition those technologies as a company priority. But we are doing that right now, and hopefully we are going to close this very soon. Maybe by the end of this calendar year, we’re going to have all the organization in place to invest even more communication in those technologies.

Loren Moss: If we look beyond Colombia. If we look at Latin America and you have your big six economies — Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru — where are the emerging markets here in the neighborhood? What countries are you seeing growth in that maybe are newly-emerging beyond those “traditional” players?

Eduardo Almeida: The point is we should also position this in a different perspective: Which country has a digital agenda? In government, it is important to have a minister responsible for digital strategy or digital inclusion, right? So, we can go with very few countries.

“We do have this presence in Rionegro and Medellín. We are expanding that, and we are expanding based on the contracts we have closed recently with some customers.” – Eduardo Almeida

Now we see that Argentina — and I was just there — has meetings between customers and government. We see that Argentina is really considering technology and digitalization as a country strategy. And, for the first time, we see Colombia having a digital agenda in terms of government. Argentina is doing well in this regard. I think they are ahead of the curve. Peru is also a big surprise and doing great in terms of having a digital strategy. Now, of course the penetration is very high in Chile compared to other countries because they started 10 years ago. So, it is not new to them. So, those are the countries that we see.

Mexico, depending on where you are, is also a very interesting opportunity to us, particularly in the public sector. In the financial sector we understand that Colombia has the largest market after Mexico. Now, Brazil is suffering big time because of the crisis that happened a couple of years ago. The country is starting to emerge again, so probably there are some analysts that are saying that the country’s GDP will be positive in calendar-year 2017, which will be a big surprise. Even though it’s low, it still is positive.

Another thing is that both Colombia and Brazil will have federal elections next year, and we also know that when you have such elections, the government itself starts to redesign some of the priorities that they have. And we understand that the second half of 2018 will be more exciting in terms of technology adoption by government, mainly because elections will be part of the past, and in the new administration we need to start investing and executing.

Loren Moss: Last question: I think that one advantage of living there in the Southern Cone is that you’re closer to wine country. Are there any particular labels or viñas that you’re drinking this year that you would recommend picking up?

Eduardo Almeida: Absolutely! We should have more time to talk about that whenever you go to Chile and Argentina. There are so many great wine producers there. And I will tell you something, when I joined Unisys — I started October 2 — I decided to take a few days off in order to recharge my battery in Mendoza.

On my trip to Mendoza, I had a quick pitstop in our office in Buenos Aires. I had meetings with the local people there, without even presenting myself. I just said, “I’m the new employee here, so tell me a little bit about what you guys do here.” It was so interesting, because they welcomed me as a big fan without knowing that I was becoming the new person responsible for operations. And then I went to Mendoza. How familiar are you with Mendoza? Have you been there?

Loren Moss: That’s the heart of malbec country. Their malbec is as good as in Spain.

Eduardo Almeida: Yeah, exactly. They’re very good. I like the Viña Cobos producer very much. It belongs to a guy called Paul Hobbs, who is a great producer in California and who also has vineyards in Romania. He produces Mendoza. So Mendoza is good, and of course, Chile is in my heart in terms of wines. I like the carménere. I think that early in 2018, we’re going to get together here again to celebrate the New Year. We’re going to have to have a wine together here in Colombia.

“We have an extraordinary opportunity in the Latin American market for Unisys to follow a path of growth and expansion,” said Almeida.

Almeida has more than two decades of experience in the IT industry — working for 19 years at Cisco — and has worked on projects throughout many Latin America countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Most recently, he served as a sales manager at Genesys, and the IT veteran has received education at Mackenzie University in São Paulo, the Institute of Management Foundation in São Paulo, and Brazil’s Fundação Getúlio Vargas.

Almeida will report directly to Eric Hutto, senior vice president and global president of enterprise solutions at Unisys. “Throughout Eduardo’s career, what has determined his success has been his ability to develop and lead strong teams while focusing intensely on customer success,” said Hutto.

Photo: Eduardo Almeida, vice president and general manager of Latin America for Unisys. (Credit: Unisys)

Among other ventures, Unisys was there to launch its new banking solution Elevate. The offering, an onmichannel platform that aims to improve the customer experience, is one of a host of products and services the company is offering as it tries to play a larger role in the Colombian market, where more and more firms are looking beyond their borders.

“More companies in Colombia right now are becoming mutlilatinas, and we are identifying many more opportunities to provide those global solutions,” Carlos Ferrer, head of Unisys in Latin America, told Finance Colombia.

To offer more details about this shifting mentality in Colombia, the Elevate platform, and financial sector security, Ferrer recently sat down with Loren Moss, executive editor of Finance Colombia.

Photo: Loren Moss of Finance Colombia (left) speaks with Eric Crabtree (center) and Carlos Ferrer (right) of Unisys during the Asobancaria 2017 conference in Colombia. (Credit: Loren Moss)

Loren Moss: What are the challenges that banks in Colombia face that banks in North America or Europe don’t necessarily face?

Carlos Ferrer: In general, most of the banks and financial institutions — even though they have different levels of maturity in different markets — have the same kinds of challenges, strategies, and objectives.

So, I don’t see a major difference within the challenges that the financial industry or entities face in Colombia than what we see in other markets. I’m responsible for Latin America, and I see pretty much the same kinds of issues in Brazil, in Argentina, in Chile, in Mexico, in Venezuela, and in other countries.

The main differences are levels of maturity in the market, the banking penetration levels, and some differences in terms of regulation in different countries that you always have. But at the end of the day, the banks and the financial institutions get used to those requirements and organize the way they operate to be successful in those markets.

Our challenge is to bring a solution that can help them grow in whatever region they are in, facing whatever situation they have to face — regulatory, political, or economic. So we are always offering things to help clients improve their costs and improve their operational efficiency. We are offering things to lead to a better customer experience, to simplify the processes, to help them grow, and to increase revenue and profits. Every bank has the same issues, and we support all of that.

Loren Moss: At Asobancaria last month, Unisys announced a new product that’s now available in Colombia called Elevate. Why is Colombia a good market for it and what does it solve for banks?

Carlos Ferrer: So really what Elevate does, if we try to present that very simply, is allow the banks and the banking industry to deliver services with the same level of customer experience across all the channels. But at the same time it allows them to customize the way they go to every specific group of customers.

So, you can create the same kind of experience for a 50-, 60-, or 70-year-old person who still loves to go to the office and talk to a clerk that you do with a young millennial that is doing everything on a tablet or a mobile device. You give everyone a set of options, so you can be very strategic in the way that you present your products to different target clients, allowing every target client to use products in the way that they feel most comfortable.

It’s not forcing everybody to be mobile. It’s not forcing everybody to go to the office. It’s having all the variety available for all of your customers — but at the same time giving everyone the same kind of experience. So, if someone wants to use different channels, they will have exactly the same experience in all of those channels. And that’s unique. No financial institution in Colombia right now can offer something like that to their clients. Elevate by Unisys enables that possibility for the banks.

Loren Moss: Colombian enterprises have traditionally been slower to become multinationals than those in other more mature market economies, like say Mexico or Brazil. But we’re starting to see that change. Argos is now competing globally. Bancolombia now owns banks in Central America. How important is it for those Colombian companies — banking companies — to be able to obtain support infrastructure from companies like Unisys that are global in nature? Is that becoming more and more of a factor as those companies become multinationals? Having service providers that also have a multinational footprint?

Carlos Ferrer: Yeah. What it creates is a different set of opportunities in the market. Because when you go to a market — it could be in Colombia or any other country in the world — you have some clients that are just local. And you compete with global providers but you also compete with some local providers. Usually the local providers are low-cost service providers.

When companies start becoming “multilatinas,” or multinationals, they want to have the same set of services everywhere they operate. They want to be able to consolidate their operations, to consolidate their services, to consolidate their information, to consolidate the way they provide their services to their internal employees or their customers.

So they start looking for companies like Unisys that can also provide a similar experience across the whole region in which they operate. So, for us in Colombia, Elevate is moving into that direction. More companies in Colombia right now are becoming “mutlilatinas,” or multinationals, and we are identifying many more opportunities to provide those global solutions.

It just changes the game. It changes the kind of company that we compete with. But it’s very interesting, and every year Colombia brings additional opportunities into that market that we used to have in countries like Brazil — and we still have in countries like Chile or Mexico but not in Colombia. And that’s very important. It’s part of what we really do very well.

Loren Moss: Like everywhere, security is a big issue here. In Colombia, you hear about people being taken advantage of due to a lack of financial sophistication. You see the people get a text — or a WhatsApp message — about a pyramid bank schemes. I would imagine that that presents a challenge for banks and other money-handlers. For Unisys, as a company that supports banks with technology and outsourcing, what are some of the innovations and the capabilities to help financial institutions protect not only themselves but even protect end-users?

Carlos Ferrer: There is a combination of products, such as Stealth. We have evolved Stealth into multiple services. We have something called “Stealth Identity” that incorporates the biometrics identification process into all the security, which is very unique and allows you to connect any device.

But we have also other products under Stealth. To open a cloud, to open a mobile device, to open a server, whatever. So, it’s a combination of that, but we also bring analytics — predictive analytics, advanced analytics, or machine-learning — into the security process. So, being able to evaluate, incorporate, analyze, and make decisions based on the information allows you really to be more proactive at a time that you have to protect the information from your clients.

So, it’s a combination of products, it’s a combination of services, it’s a combination of analytics. In services, we also have advanced security services including SOC the CM that we provide in Colombia. So that makes it a unique approach to them that allows them to protect the information.

Loren Moss: And what are those services? SOC and CM?

Carlos Ferrer: SOC is Security Operations Center. The CM is made basically by the capture of all the logs from servers, from applications, from routers. A log is any action that passes through a device. When you log-in — take a log.

So when you do forensic analysis, it is done based on the logs, but the logs are in real time. Any time that a communication passes through any device, it generates a log of information. That log says that such-and such person is communicating with such-and-such person and this is the address that it’s coming from and this is the address it’s going to.

So what a CM does, which is a system of correlation of events, is to analyze the origins, the sources and the kind of information that is being sent in order to analyze behavior patterns and, based on those patterns, to take preventative action to block any kind of malicious action. For example, an attack that we faced a couple of weeks ago.

CM is the most effective way to prevent that kind of attack. Why? Because the system starts seeing all these connections trying to get into your network and immediately correlates all that information and says: “This is something unusual” and you just stop.

So, it never comes into your network. You program the way that the rules that identify analyzed information tells you that that information, that process is not a natural process for your business. You just block the whole process.

This interview has been edited for space and clarity.

Overall, Colombia’s security score fell right in the middle of the pack among the 13 different countries studied. Five countries rank worse and six rank better in the 2017 Unisys Security Index, with the United States receiving the exact same score as its close South American ally.

Colombia’s score of 169 points remains better than global rate of 173 and significantly below Mexico (216), the worst performer in the region and second worst in the study. (A lower score signifies a better perception of security.) Colombia also beats out Brazil (189) and Argentina (177), which both come in worse than the global average. The Philippines is viewed as the least secure nation with a score of 243.

While Colombia’s score has actually deteriorated since the last edition of the the Unisys study in 2014, security perceptions have fallen across the entire world, even in most advanced economies. The score got worse in every country that was surveyed in both 2014 and 2017 aside from Germany. Australia (rising from 106 in 2014 to 157 now) and the Netherlands (from 66 to 125) had the largest change.

While Colombia’s score has deteriorated since 2014, the perception of security has gotten worse in every country surveyed aside from Germany. (Credit: Unisys)

“While security concerns have traditionally been high in developing countries, concern is rising the fastest in developed countries, thus closing the gap between the two,” stated the report. It added that, “the attitudes of consumers around the world are dramatically changing — at the same time that their anxiety over security is dramatically increasing.”

The report goes far beyond personal security and national security by also incorporating attitudes toward financial security and cybersecurity. For related reasons, John Kendall, global director of national and border security at Unisys, says that this rise in anxiety has repercussions for the private sector. In short, nervous consumers are simply harder to acquire and more apt to refrain from purchasing new services.

“When people have high feelings of concern, they are less willing to forgo privacy to adopt convenience or support government agencies sharing citizen data,” said Kendall. “They are simply more wary. It is a big inhibitor.”

Unisys measures four main categories of security, which are each then further broken down into subsets. (Credit: Unisys)

At the same time, John Bone, Unisys’ head of cyber-resiliency and a retired U.S. Army colonel, says that stronger feelings of insecurity can also prompt people to reach out to the private sector even more.

If they believe the government won’t protect them, they need someone who can. “Citizens are increasingly looking to the private sector to plug the leaks, and there is a lower view of what established governments can do,” said Bone.

In Colombia, The biggest negative influence on Colombia’s score is its high national security score of 189, which is 22 points worse than the 2014 level.

Financial insecurity, which focuses on bank and credit card fraud and the population’s ability to conduct essential financial obligations, is also high at 173 points. Personal security scored 163, and internet security is seen as a low-level concern at 150.

Since the 2014 study, the perception of financial security in Colombia has deteriorated by the same margin as national security, scoring 22 points worse. Internet security has deteriorated by 17 points and national security by 22 points.

Troublingly, when looking at the category subsets, bank fraud ranks as the individual concern that has grown the most since 2014, spiking by 65%. Identity theft has performed nearly as bad, with a 64% jump, and the fear of disasters and epidemic risk (a single category) has grown the most at 71%.

Earlier this year, Colombia suffered its worst natural disaster in decades when a flash flood killed more than 300 people in the city of Mocoa. Nationwide flooding has also led to deadly catastrophes in Manizales, the Pacific region of Chocó, and elsewhere in 2017.

People in Colombia see a number of potential benefits from the nation’s peace process, according to the 2017 Unisys Security Index. (Credit: Unisys)

One aspect of the survey unique to Colombia is a question about security improvements and other benefits related to the peace accord that the government signed late last year with the country’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

More than half (51%) expect the peace deal to have a benefit in terms of urban and rural security, while exactly 50% think it will improve the international image of the country. Another 48% expect peace to bring more foreign and domestic investment, 40% say it will benefit tourism, and 30% project better border security. Despite the fact that the peace process remains controversial and politically polarizing to some Colombians, less than one in 10 (7%) said that the FARC demobilization will have no benefit in any of these categories.

The Global Security Index analyzed the environment in 13 countries, including Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina in Latin America. The others studied were: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Malaysia, Philippines, and New Zealand.

In Colombia, Unisys surveyed more than 1,000 respondents from across country. Roughly half of those surveyed come from Bogotá and the other main Andean cities, one-third are located in the Caribbean and Pacific coastal regions, and the remainder are spread throughout the rest of the nation.

Photo credit: Jared Wade