With well over 150 countries world-wide, cyber-crime spans the globe and effects each one differently. “The count of countries can range from between 193 and 200. The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2009) estimates the count to be 194” (Bureau of Intelligence and Research, 2009). Studies show that wealth and “the degree of internet connectivity within a nation has been found to consistently predict higher levels of multiple cyber-crime types, including fraud, malware, spam, and digital piracy” (Kigerl, 2013; 2016). Research among 190 countries conducting a K-means clustering analysis, determined that there are four distinct categories based on cyber-crime that the studied nations can be placed into (Kigerl, 2016). The four categories are low cyber-crime countries, advance fee fraud countries, non-serious cyber-crime countries, and phishing scam countries (Kigerl, 2016). Furthering to categorize countries, the cybersecurity firm Symantec, created an index based on cyber-crime activity. Within this index the top five countries include the United States, China, Brazil, Germany, and India (Kigerl, 2016).
Of the index based on the cyber-crime activity within a country, Brazil is in the top five with the United States that is similar in population size. As of April 2022, the population size of the United States was 332.6 million and Brazil with 217.2 million (census.gov). With the research in the K-cluster analysis, the United States was given the cluster assignment three being a non-serious cyber-crime country. Brazil was given the cluster assignment four being a phishing scam country. An interesting fact within those two countries assignments, was with Brazil being a phishing scam country, “The United States is targeted the most by phishing attacks, suffering 60% of worldwide phishing volumes” (RSA, 2014). Interesting is the correlation of the two countries with one, Brazil, being a phishing scam country, and the other, the United States, being targeted and effected the most worldwide.
References
Bureau of Intelligence and Research (July 29, 2009). Independent states in the world. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/s/inr/rls/4250.htm.
Kigerl, A. (July-December 2016). International Journal of Cyber Criminology Vol. 10 Issue 2: Cyber Crime Nation Typologies: K-Means Clustering of Countries Based on Cyber Crime Rates.
RSA (2014). 2013 A year in review: Fraud report. Spamhaus (2016). The World’s Worst Botnet Countries. Spamhaus Blocklist database.
Retrieved from https://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/botnet-cc.