Why is it in the News?

A new World Cybercrime Index developed by researchers shows that a majority of cybercriminals come from just a few countries.

About World Cybercrime Index:

• The World Cybercrime Index is a collaborative effort between the University of Oxford and UNSW Canberra that identifies global cybercrime hotspots by ranking countries based on their contribution to cybercrime.
  • Data is collected from a survey of 92 cybercrime experts involved in intelligence gathering and investigations.
• The index ranks around 100 countries and identifies key hotspots for various cybercrime categories, such as ransomware, credit card theft, and scams.

Key Findings:

• Russia tops the list, followed by Ukraine, China, the USA, Nigeria, and Romania.
• India ranks 10th in the index, with a balanced distribution of cybercrime types but a notable specialization in scams.
• Certain countries were associated with specific types of cybercrime, like data and identity theft in the United States and technical products or services-related crimes in China.
• These insights highlight the need for international cooperation in addressing cybercrime and its various manifestations across different countries.

According to the Oxford University, the five major categories of cybercrime assessed by the study were:

• • Technical products/services (e.g. malware coding, botnet access, access to compromised systems, tool production).
  • Attacks and extortion (e.g. denial-of-service attacks, ransomware).
  • Data/identity theft (e.g. hacking, phishing, account compromises, credit card comprises).
  • Scams (e.g. advance fee fraud, business email compromise, online auction fraud).
  • Cashing out/money laundering (e.g. credit card fraud, money mules, illicit virtual currency platforms).