WORLD CYBERCRIME INDEX

• The Researchers from the Department of Sociology have compiled the first ever ‘World Cybercrime Index’, which identifies the globe’s major cybercrime hotspots by ranking the most significant sources of cybercrime at a national level.

ABOUT THE WORLD CYBERCRIME INDEX:

• The World Cybercrime Index has been developed as a joint partnership between the University of Oxford and University of New South Wales, Sydney.
• It has been funded by CRIMGOV, a European Union-supported project.
• The index was developed to identify major cybercrime hotspots globally by ranking countries based on the significant sources of cybercrime at a national level.
• The study ‘Mapping the global geography of cybercrime with the World Cybercrime Index’ has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT

• India occupies the 10th position in the cybercrime rankings, with scams involving advance fee payments being the most prevalent type.
• Russia leads the index, followed by Ukraine, China, the US, Nigeria, and Romania, with North Korea, the UK, and Brazil rounding out the top positions.
• Russia and Ukraine emerged as highly technical cybercrime hubs, while Nigerian cybercriminals primarily engaged in less technical forms of cybercrime.

THE FIVE CATEGORIES OF STUDY WERE:

1. Technical products/services (such as malware)
2. Attacks and extortion
3. Data/identity theft (such as hacking or phishing)
4. Scams (such as business email compromise or online auction fraud)
5. Cashing out/money laundering (such as credit card fraud)