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Business process outsourcing (BPO) and customer relationship management multinational Atento has been hit by a cyberattack, with the greatest impact seen in Brazil, its largest operation in Latin America.

The Madrid-headquartered firm informed its customers on Sunday (October 17) about the attack against its systems in Brazil, which caused an interruption of service as the company sought to contain and evaluate the extent of the threat, according to local news websiteNeofeed.

Atento's note to customers added that its security team was working towards containing it and ensuring the security of the affected environments before bringing them back online as soon as possible.

Contacted byZDNet, the company confirmed the incident and said in a statement that in order to prevent any potential risk to customers, the company "proactively isolated" the impacted systems. This resulted in the suspension of connections with customers in Brazil and a service interruption.

"Investigations are still ongoing, and the company continues to work closely with its consultants and the relevant authorities to assess the incident's business impact and take appropriate action", the company noted.

Atento stressed that it was able to contain the threat within 24 hours and start providing limited service to some customers. Data center operations have already resumed and the company will start to progressively resume more services.

Brazil is one of Atento's main global markets. More than 45% of the company's global workforce, which employs over 150,000 people, is concentrated in the Brazilian operation, which serves major telecommunications companies and banks such as Bradesco and Ita