Tuesday , June 24 2025
Index

University of Oxford research
“Cybercrime Index” Russia, Ukraine, and China Top Ranked

After three years of research, an international team has created the first ‘World Cybercrime Index’, which ranks the most significant sources of cybercrime at a national level.

The PLOS ONE journal’s Index, reveals that a few countries pose the biggest cybercrime threat. Russia is the top, followed by Ukraine, China, the USA, Nigeria, and Romania, with the UK at number eight.

WhatsApp banned on all US House of Representatives devices

The U.S. House of Representatives has banned congressional staff from using WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns, as...
Read More
WhatsApp banned on all US House of Representatives devices

Kaspersky found “SparkKitty” Malware on Google Play, Apple App Store

Kaspersky found a new mobile malware dubbed SparkKitty in Google Play and Apple App Store apps, targeting Android and iOS....
Read More
Kaspersky found “SparkKitty” Malware on Google Play, Apple App Store

OWASP AI Testing Guide Launched to Uncover Vulns in AI Systems

OWASP has released its AI Testing Guide, a framework to help organizations find and fix vulnerabilities specific to AI systems....
Read More
OWASP AI Testing Guide Launched to Uncover Vulns in AI Systems

Axentec Launches Bangladesh’s First Locally Hosted Tier-4 Cloud Platform

In a major milestone for the country’s digital infrastructure, Axentec PLC has officially launched Axentec Cloud, Bangladesh’s first Tier-4 cloud...
Read More
Axentec Launches Bangladesh’s First Locally Hosted Tier-4 Cloud Platform

Hackers Bypass Gmail MFA With App-Specific Password Reuse

A hacking group reportedly linked to Russian government has been discovered using a new phishing method that bypasses two-factor authentication...
Read More
Hackers Bypass Gmail MFA With App-Specific Password Reuse

Russia detects first SuperCard malware attacks via NFC

Russian cybersecurity experts discovered the first local data theft attacks using a modified version of legitimate near field communication (NFC)...
Read More
Russia detects first SuperCard malware attacks via NFC

Income Property Investments exposes 170,000+ Individuals record

Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered an unsecured database with 170,360 records belonging to a real estate company. It contained personal...
Read More
Income Property Investments exposes 170,000+ Individuals record

ALERT (CVE: 2023-28771)
Zyxel Firewalls Under Attack via CVE-2023-28771 by 244 IPs

GreyNoise found attempts to exploit CVE-2023-28771, a vulnerability in Zyxel's IKE affecting UDP port 500. The attack centers around CVE-2023-28771,...
Read More
ALERT (CVE: 2023-28771)  Zyxel Firewalls Under Attack via CVE-2023-28771 by 244 IPs

CISA Flags Active Exploits in Apple iOS and TP-Link Routers

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has recently included two high-risk vulnerabilities in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV)...
Read More
CISA Flags Active Exploits in Apple iOS and TP-Link Routers

10K Records Allegedly from Mac Cloud Provider’s Customers Leaked Online

SafetyDetectives’ Cybersecurity Team discovered a public post on a clear web forum in which a threat actor claimed to have...
Read More
10K Records Allegedly from Mac Cloud Provider’s Customers Leaked Online

Dr. Miranda Bruce, co-author of the study from the University of Oxford and UNSW Canberra, explained that the study will help both public and private sectors concentrate their resources on major cybercrime areas, reducing resources spent on cybercrime in less affected countries. The research aims to reveal cybercriminal identities and contribute to combating profit-driven cybercrime.

ox.ac.uk

‘We now have a deeper understanding of the geography of cybercrime, and how different countries specialise in different types of cybercrime.’

‘By continuing to collect this data, we’ll be able to monitor the emergence of any new hotspots and it is possible early interventions could be made in at-risk countries before a serious cybercrime problem even develops.’

The Index data was collected from a survey of 92 top cybercrime experts worldwide. They were asked to identify the major categories of cybercrime and rank the countries that are significant sources of these crimes based on impact, professionalism, and technical skill of cybercriminals.

Top ten countries with their World Cybercrime Index scores: Russia, Ukraine, China, United States, Nigeria, Romania, North Korea, United Kingdom, Brazil, and India.

Jonathan Lusthaus, an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, explained that cybercrime is hard to see because criminals hide using fake profiles and technical measures.

‘Due to the illicit and anonymous nature of their activities, cybercriminals cannot be easily accessed or reliably surveyed. They are actively hiding. If you try to use technical data to map their location, you will also fail, as cybercriminals bounce their attacks around internet infrastructure across the world. The best means we have to draw a picture of where these offenders are actually located is to survey those whose job it is to track these people,’ Dr Lusthaus said.

Understanding why certain countries are more prone to cybercrime than others is the next step in our research. Many theories exist regarding why some countries have become hubs for cybercriminals. One example is that countries with a skilled workforce but limited job opportunities may resort to illegal activities in order to survive. We will test these theories using our global data set.

Co-author of the study, Professor Federico Varese from Sciences Po in France, said the World Cybercrime Index is the first step in a broader aim to understand the local dimensions of cybercrime production across the world.

‘We are hoping to expand the study so that we can determine whether national characteristics like educational attainment, 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 view that, much like forms of rganised crime, it is embedded within particular contexts,’ Professor Varese said.

The World Cybercrime Index was created by the University of Oxford and UNSW. It was funded by CRIMGOV, a project supported by the European Union at the University of Oxford and Sciences Po. Other authors of the study are Professor Ridhi Kashyap of the University of Oxford and Professor Nigel Phair of Monash University.

The study ‘Mapping the global geography of cybercrime with the World Cybercrime Index’ has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

*The five major categories of cybercrime assessed by the study were:

1. Technical products/services (e.g. malware coding, botnet access, access to compromised systems, tool production).

2. Attacks and extortion (e.g. denial-of-service attacks, ransomware).

3. Data/identity theft (e.g. hacking, phishing, account compromises, credit card comprises).

4. Scams (e.g. advance fee fraud, business email compromise, online auction fraud).

5. Cashing out/money laundering (e.g. credit card fraud, money mules, illicit virtual currency platforms).

Check Also

Patch Tuesday

Microsoft patch Tuesday fix exploited zero-day and 65 vuls patched

Microsoft’s June Patch Tuesday update has arrived, addressing 66 vulnerabilities across its product line. One …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *