MELBOURNE/AMSTERDAM—AVG, an Australian company that distributes anti-virus and internet security products to the Australian, New Zealand and South Pacific markets, has conducted a study of the most dangerous places in the world to surf the internet, in terms of the likelihood of encountering a malicious code or virus.
Data for 144 countries was compiled utilizing 127 million PCs, said the company. “AVG was able to look at the incidence of security threats that its software had to deal with in the last week of July 2010," said AVG. "From these figures, AVG was able to average out the likelihood of the average web user facing a web security attack."
Globally, the average surfer’s chances of being attacked while online on any given day were 1 in 73. Not bad when compared with the Caucasus region, where surfers in Russia face 1 in 14 odds, in Armenia 1 in 24 and in Azerbaijan they have a 1 in 39 chance of being targeted.
At the other end of the spectrum, some of the world’s safest surfers were in Japan and Taiwan, and of the 10 safest countries, seven were in Africa.
For continents overall, a surfer’s chances of getting attacked in North America were 1 in 51, in Europe it was 1 in 72, and in Asia (including Asia Pacific) 1 in 102. The safest continents were Africa (1 in 108), and by a large margin South America (1 in 164). Indeed, the "riskiest" country in South America was Peru at 1 in 131.
Other results from the study are:
* Turkey leads the league table for the world’s riskiest web surfers, with one in 10 being attacked. Web users in Russia (1 in 14 were hit), Armenia (1 in 24), and Azerbaijan (1 in 39) also suffer high rates of attacks.
* Other areas where web surfers are disproportionately at risk include Bangladesh (1 in 41), Pakistan (1 in 48) and in SE Asia, Vietnam and Laos (where the chances of facing an attack are both 1 in 42).
* Australia ranked 37th (1 in 75 attack ratio), while New Zealand came in at 63rd (1 in 103).
* The US is at number nine when it comes to the riskiest places to go online (1 in 48), UK is ranked 31st (1 in 63), while German web surfers come in at number 41 (1 in 83).
* Other major developed nations fared much better with web surfers steering clear of suspicious websites. Though Sierra Leone (1 in 692) and Niger (1 in 442) were ‘safer’, if you look at broadband penetration in these countries as well as overall Internet use, surfing the web in Japan (1 in 404 attacked) arguably offers the safest experience.
* Taiwan (1 in 248 attacked), Argentina (1 in 241 attacked), and France (1 in 224 attacked) all came in the top 20 list of the world’s safest surfers.
