As technology and Internet access spread throughout the world, maintaining cybersecurity continues to be just as difficult with rapidly growing costs. As more people gain access to technology, a percentage of those will utilize technology to exploit others for a variety of reasons, also known as cybercrime. Kigerl (2016) was able to find a relationship between the types of cybercrime that countries engage in and their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the quantity of their population that has access. With the United States being one of those countries with high GDP and a large quantity of users, they are not only targets, but their cyber criminals are more apt to engage in non-serious cybercriminal activity. As defined by Kigeri, some of the other countries that fall into this category include Canada, China, France, Germany, and Japan.

As one browses the Internet for information, they will find several different websites provide their best and worst lists cybersecurity within various countries. In Kigeri’s study, he found that like how countries develop from agrarian through manufacturing, industrial, and finally services, their cybercrime activities seem to have a path as well. Countries that have less money and users tend to produce far less cybercrime that requires any complex technical activity. As these countries increase in GDP and users, that statistic is expected to change. Further those countries that are increasing users will gradually become more technical in their execution of cybercrime. As they develop, they are also subject to many different types of exploits. According to Kshetri (2019), Africa will have a billion Internet users by 2022. As they increase in their access base, they will develop more complex criminals and their users will be subject to more cybercrime as they are considered to be soft targets.

In contrary, the U.S. has continued to develop more secure solutions; however, one of the biggest challenges for any country, regardless of status, is cyber awareness. As cyber hackers and exploitation tools become more technically capable, human negligence and complacency continue to present some of the most vulnerable targets. Technology doesn’t fail as often as human behavior that continually falls victim to phishing, social engineering, and other email scams. As developing countries increase their Internet user base, they will have to increase funding to protect critical information just like the U.S. and other wealthier nations.

Bischoff, P. (2021, September 21). Which countries have the worst (and best) cybersecurity? Comparitech. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/cybersecurity-by-country/.

Kigerl, A. (2016). Cyber Crime Nation Typologies: K-Means Clustering of Countries Based on Cyber Crime Rates. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 10(2), 147–269.

Kshetri, N. (2019) Cybercrime and Cybersecurity in Africa, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, 22:2, 77-81, DOI: 10.1080/1097198X.2019.1603527