India ranks 10th in global cybercrime density, has lowest YoY increase

Cybersecurity company Surfshark conducted a study of the top 10 countries found to have the most cybercrime. According to the research, India ranks 10th with four victims per 1M internet users. Moreover, together with Belgium, India has the lowest year-over-year increase (+1%) in cybercrimes. To put in perspective, the overall number of cybercrimes grew by more than 30% worldwide.

“As more of our lives become digital, the chances of falling victim to online crimes grow every year. Since 2001, the online crime victim count increased by 15 times, and financial losses grew more than 200 times, from $2,000 to $480,000 per hour,” explains Vytautas Kaziukonis, the CEO of Surfshark. “Inevitably, the privacy and cybersecurity landscape will change rapidly over the next several years. Now is a good time to focus on personal cybersecurity hygiene to stay safer online.”

According to the research, the UK tops the cybercrimes density list, followed by the US, Canada, and Belgium. The UK had 3,409 victims per 1M internet users, almost twice as many as the US (1,724 per 1M).

The number of victims in the UK grew by 130% compared to 2019, which is the second-highest YoY growth worldwide after South Africa that faced the sharpest rise of 277%. The US and Canada have seen an increase of around 50% in cybercrime victims since 2019.

What are the most popular cybercrimes?
According to Surfshark’s study, phishing continues to be the most common cybercrime for the second year in a row. In 2020, there were a total of 241,343 phishing victims. However, on average, phishing victims lost the least amount of money ($225 per victim), while people who fell victim to investment fraud lost the most ($38,287 per victim on average).

At the same time, confidence and romance fraud had the highest financial impact in total on its victims. People lost more than $600M this way in 2020. That year the least impactful online crime was the Denial of Service (DoS) attacks – only around 2000 victims reported this crime with an average loss of $254.

“As the geopolitical tensions grow, we might see more cyber warfare and 0day spyware similar to Pegasus,” explains Aleksandr Valentij, Security Officer at Surfshark.

In total cybercrime claimed at least 5,654,947 victims and $19,216,000,000 in losses over the 20-year period.

Witnessing this problem, Surfshark developed a Data Vulnerability Thermometer combining open-source FBI information and research algorithms. The online tool gives users their personal risk score, possible specific cybercrimes, and prevention tactics depending on the data points selected.

The Data Vulnerability Thermometer also contains descriptions, typology, tips and statistics of 20 different internet crime offenses aimed at individual users. This encyclopedia also has extensive coverage of statistics on trends and patterns in the field of cybercrimes.

CT Bureau