An international team revealed the first “World Cybercrime Index”: a classification of the main cybercrime hotspots in the world, with Angola highlighted.
After years of research, a team from the University of Oxford and UNSW Canberra has now released the first “World Cybercrime Index” – entitled “Mapping the global geography of cybercrime with the World Cybercrime Index”, published in the magazine PLoS ONE.
Through an analytical view, it highlights the countries with the greatest cybercrime threats, and provides important information for policymakers and authorities.
Results from the “World Cybercrime Index” indicate that a relatively small number of countries harbor the greatest cybercrime threats. In fact, there are six that appeared in the top ten places in each cybercrime category: China, Russia, Ukraine, United States of America, Romania and Nigeria.
A statement reads that “Russia was ranked first globally, with Russian cybercriminals considered the most professional and technically qualified in the world, with their crimes having the greatest impact”.
The research underlying the index will help remove the veil of anonymity surrounding cybercriminals and will hopefully help combat the growing threat of for-profit cybercrime.
We now have a deeper understanding of the geography of cybercrime and how different countries specialize in different types of cybercrime.
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stated Miranda Bruce, co-author of the study, highlighting the importance of this research to guide the public and private sectors in the effective allocation of resources, as well as in strategic planning to combat cyber threats.
From the co-author's perspective, this index is particularly relevant, as it helps to understand the geographic distribution of cybercrime and allows proactive interventions in high-risk countries before the situation worsens.
The index is the result of data collection through a survey of 92 cybercrime experts from around the world, based on their experience in information and investigations into cybercrime.
These experts evaluated five main categories of cybercrime:
- Technical products/services (such as malware);
- Attacks and extortion;
- Data/identity theft (such as hacking or phishing);
- Fraud (such as compromising company email or fraud in online auctions);
- Extortion/money laundering (such as credit card fraud).
And then they ranked countries based on the impact, professionalism and technical competence of their cybercriminals.
In the study, researchers noted that traditional methods of locating criminals are ineffective in cyberspace, and require alternative approaches, such as expert surveys, to map their activities.
We hope to expand the study so that we can determine whether national characteristics, such as education level, Internet penetration, GDP or levels of corruption, are associated with cybercrime.
Many people think that cybercrime is global and fluid, but this study supports the idea that, like forms of organized crime, it is embedded in specific contexts.
Said Jonathan Lusthaus, co-author and associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, in release.
