Developed countries are more likely to have a higher risk of cyber crime; because of the amount of time the user stays on the internet. The data presented is collected and analyzed by Statista. Europeans seem to have the fix for this issue; spend less time online. From 0 to 1, the Cyber Risk Index or (CRI) predicts the risk of becoming a victim of cyber-crime depending on the country of residence. The higher the index, the higher the risk.
Things of such like; high-income economy, advanced technological infrastructures, urbanization, and digitalization lead to a higher risk of cyber-crime. Northern Europe has the highest average monthly wage and more than 90% of internet penetration, it is the most dangerous place in the world to be online and the United States isn’t far behind.
On the Global Cyber Security Index; the United Kingdom ranks first and United States second among being the riskiest countries to be online to which is calculated by factors such as legal, technical, organizational, and capacity on a country level but on the individual level they have a very limited impact. Exposure to these threats matter on the income level of an individual.
Cyber Risk Index :
- Iceland (0.839)
- Sweden (0.809)
- United Arab Emirates (0.774)
- Norway (0.729)
- United States (0.713)
- Singapore (0.670)
- Ireland (0.664)
- New Zealand (0.660)
- Denmark (0.657)
- United Kingdom (0.647)
What does the future hold?:
The internet will gain more than a billion new users in the next five years. This growth will most likely come from countries of such like (India, China, Nigeria), where the internet penetration is low. These Cyber-criminals will have a much wider net to cast for easy targets. The riskiest regions will be areas of high-income economies.
What can I do now?:
We recommend safe internet practices. This includes ditching Google as your main search engine and try something more privacy-centric like DuckDuckGo. Many social platforms that may expose too much information about you; be re-mindful of what you post. Try using Privacy-focused browsers of such as like Tor and Firefox and Brave. Your ISP provider constantly sees your internet traffic; what comes in and what goes out. Public Wifi can expose you to these types of cyber-criminals. A suggestion would be the use of a good VPN service. There are many vpn services out there to choose from; you can try starting with NordVPN. Protect your computer with a good anti-virus protection software. Some sites you visit, or simply just the click of a link can expose you to a malicious file download. A good malware protection service is Malwarebytes.