ENEM - A challenging continental Security and Logistics operation.

There is no doubt about the challenges brought whilst we have been facing the pandemic. For the first time in history, today, 24th January, the main Brazilian entrance exam will allow the students to have the test on a new date. And it was done. The ENEM is the acronyms of something in English that would mean Higher Education Entrance Exam, this standardized test is the prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions in Brazil. Implemented in 1998, turned gradually into the main higher education access way. It Is considered the second-largest university entrance test simultaneously applied in the world, behind only the “gaokao”, the Chinese higher education entrance test. The Brazilian ENEM had cost around £80 million in 2020.

A critical operation that has zero tolerance to fails, and where security is the prime requirement. That exam already reached around 9 million students in the past, and in 2020 won the challenge of bringing millions of printed tests in 26 states, in approximately 15 thousand sites. Last year, this unprecedented time, brought new obstacles to be overcome related to COVID-19. The sites where the exam is applied were increased, the number of involved people reached 70 thousand professionals. The ENEM would be compared to the GMAT in the UK but embracing all universities and the whole subjects.

The Correios

The Correios is one state company, as it was the Royal Mail in the past. The Deutsche Post was the state company that origin of DHL to act in a wide range of business. In Brazil, the Correios company is still an organization linked to the government and manages the postal services besides competing with other private companies in the logistics industry. Correios is also present in 100% of Brazilian territory, and have one hundred thousand employees.

The ENEM Risk and Security challenge

When the subject is security, we are going through a truly specialized field. A security and logistics integrated operation is carefully executed by Correios for eleven years. It involves such great interaction with law enforcement forces, military agencies. Brazil treats this exam such a national security subject. Cyber monitoring, fraud detection and, hacking attempts are continuously managed, before and after the exam.

Until 2009, this exam was executed by private companies. At that time, although all the redundant security schemes, one printed exam has leaked from one printing company, and the whole exam had been cancelled, that was the reason the Brazilian government defines the Correios, as official logistics to care the ENEM. Millions of students were affected.

Today, reading the news about the ENEM, I felt the wish to share this article with you a bit of what brings me proud of being a security and risk professional. I am proud of saying I had the monumental chance to direct the ENEM security process whilst at Correios, one of the most of my career challenging projects ever