University of Oxford, UNSW develop ‘Cybercrime Index’ Ranking Countries By Cyber Threat Level
‘Cybercrime Index’ Ranking: The data that underpins the Index was collected through a survey of 92 leading cybercrime experts from around the world who are involved in cybercrime intelligence gathering and investigations.
University of Oxford, UNSW have introduced the World-First ‘Cybercrime Index’ which ranked the countries by cyber threat level. The co-authors of the study include Professor Ridhi Kashyap, from the University of Oxford and Professor Nigel Phair from Monash University.
A relatively small number of countries house the greatest cybercriminal threat, according to the index. The country with the highest threat is Russia followed by Ukraine, China, the USA, Nigeria, and Romania. Australia comes in at number 34.
The study will enable the public and private sectors to focus their resources on key cybercrime hubs and not spend much time and funds on countries where the problem is not that significant, said Co-author of the study, Dr Miranda Bruce from UNSW Canberra and the University of Oxford.
“The research that underpins the Index will help remove the veil of anonymity around cybercriminal offenders, and we hope that it will aid the fight against the growing threat of profit-driven cybercrime,” he said.
Data Collected through survey around the world
The data for the index was collected through a survey of 92 leading cybercrime experts from around the world. They were asked to consider nominating the countries that they consider to be the most significant sources of each of these types of cybercrime, also to consider five major categories of cybercrime, and then rank each country according to the impact, professionalism, and technical skill of its cybercriminals.
"Cybercrime has largely been an invisible phenomenon because offenders often mask their physical locations by hiding behind fake profiles and highly technical protections. Due to the illicit and anonymous nature of their activities, cybercriminals cannot be easily accessed or reliably surveyed. They are actively hiding. If you try to use technical data to map their location, you will also fail, as cybercriminals bounce their attacks around internet infrastructure across the world. The best means we have to draw a picture of where these offenders are actually located is to survey those whose job it is to track these people,” said Associate Professor Jonathan Lusthaus from the University of Oxford in the UK.
About Cybercrime
It is any criminal activity that involves a computer, network or networked device. It is very important to protect backup data as cybercriminals might target an individual's private information or corporate data for theft and resale. The primary motive of cybercrime is to generate a profit, and some are done to directly damage or disable the computer system. Cybercrime may include email and internet fraud, ransomware attacks, and identity fraud.
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