Secureworks World Cup of cyber security finds India the safest nation, U.S. the least safe

Published 8 July 2010

Digitally speaking, the United States is the least cyber-secure country in the world: with 265,700,000 active PCs, there were 441,003,516 attempted cyber attacks, or 1,660 attacks per 1,000 computers; India is the safest digital country in the world, with a mere 52 attacks per 1,000 PCs

SecureWorks, the information security service provider, has revealed its findings for what they have dubbed the World Cup of cyber security. Mining information on their 2,800 clients, the company has compiled a list of which countries are most vulnerable to online attacks.

Users in the United States were found to be most at risk: of 265,700,000 active PCs, there were 441,003,516 attempted cyber attacks, or 1,660 attacks per 1,000 computers. India fared best: with 48,100,000 active PCs, they only experienced 2,516,341 attempted cyber attacks, or a mere 52 per 1,000 PCs.

The statistics show that a substantial number of vulnerable computers in countries worldwide have been compromised and are being used as bots to launch cyber attacks,” said Jon Ramsey, CTO for SecureWorks. “Overall, the study shows that not only are organizations and individuals putting themselves at risk by not securing them, but they are actually providing cyber criminals with a platform to compromise other computers.”

The reasons for the difference in number of attempted attacks per country could comprise many things — this ranges from the overall Internet speeds in a country and how proactive the ISPs are in protecting their clients to general user education on security. The ratio of Windows, Mac, and Linux users in a country will also make a big difference,” continued Ramsey.

Gerald Lynchon writes in Techdigest that that at least England fares a little better in this World Cup than in the real deal, placing 6th with just 107 attempted cyber attacks per 1,000 PCs.