Which Is The Most Cybersecure Country?

Last year the Japanese were honored to live in the world’s most cyber-secure country. But today, Japan has fallen by 4 points in the ranking, and the championship wreath went to Europe. Where is the safest place to live in 2020? Comparitech’s research has shown that in Denmark. Last year Denmark was ranked fourth in the world in terms of cybersecurity, but it scored incredibly low across the majority of categories. But the country had strong legislation regarding cybercrime – this helped a lot.

Sweden, Germany, Ireland, and Japan were among the countries with the highest scores in 2020. France, Canada, and the US were displaced from the top five most cyber-secure countries and ranked ninth, sixth and 17th, respectively.

Let`s look at countries with the lowest rank per category:

• Lowest percentage of mobile malware infections – Finland – 0.87% of users
• Lowest number of financial malware attacks – Denmark, Ireland, and Sweden – 0.1% of users
• Lowest percent of computer malware infections – Denmark – 3.15% of users
• Lowest percentage of telnet attacks (by originating country) – Turkmenistan – 0%
• Lowest percentage of attacks by cryptominers – Japan – 0.17% of users
• Best prepared for cyber-attacks – United Kingdom – 0.931 score
• Most up-to-date legislation for cybersecurity – France, China, Russia, and Germany – all seven categories covered

The least cyber-secure country in the world

Like last year, Algeria was named the least cyber-secure country in the world, although its scores have improved slightly. Algeria remains the country with the lowest level of cybersecurity legislation, with only one piece of legislation on privacy. The country also received low scores on computer malware infection (19.75 percent) and readiness for cyberattacks (0.262). However, in all other categories, the number of attacks decreased, as in most other countries.

Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Syria, and Iran were also among the top least cyberfriendly, squeezing out last year’s winners in this category – Indonesia, Vietnam, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan.

What about Ukraine?

Ukraine has risen by 28 points in the rating compared to the last year. In 2019 we were the 10th country from the end, in 2020 – the 38th.  According to the research, we are one of the European countries, where a significant improvement in cybersecurity was noticed, along with Germany, Portugal, Bulgaria, and Croatia.

About the study

Last year, 60 countries took part in the study. In 2020, Comparitech added 16 new countries. This means now we have 76 participants, with the country number 1 being the least cyber safe and the country number 76 being the most cyber safe.

All countries were rated based on seven criteria:

1. The percentage of mobile devices infected with malware.
2. The percentage of computers infected with malware.
3. The number of financial malware attacks.
4. The percentage of all telnet attacks by originating country.
5. The percentage of users attacked by cryptominers.
6. The best-prepared countries for cyberattacks.
7. The countries with the most up-to-date cybersecurity legislation.