The European Countries Most at Risk of Cyber-Crime

The severity of cyber-breaches has become more and more intense in recent years; as a result, security experts at Specops Software sought to find out which (Western) European countries are the most cyber-insecure for citizens.

To find out, Specops Software calculated which country is most likely to encounter cyber-crimes by analysing the percentage of cloud provider attacks on Azure and the monthly percentage of machines that encountered cryptocurrency mining, malware and ransomware.

In the Gov.uk 2019 Cyber-Security Breaches Survey, it was discovered that a whopping 32% of businesses in the UK identified breaches or attacks during 2019, so using information from the Microsoft intelligence report, whose research team “checks billions of credentials obtained from different breaches”, Specops was eager to explore which country in Europe has the highest cyber-crime levels.

The most cyber insecure countries

1. Netherlands
2. Bulgaria
3. Belarus
4. Ukraine
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina
6. Lithuania
7. Romania
8. France
9. Hungary
10. Croatia

The most cyber secure countries

1. Ireland
2. Norway
3. Denmark
4. Switzerland
5. Iceland
6. Sweden
7. Belgium
8. Luxembourg
9. Czechia
10. Finland

The results show that the Netherlands were the most vulnerable European country, with the highest rate of cybercrime. This could be due to the large number of cloud provider incoming attacks (16.28%) to Microsoft Azure accounts in their country.

Next is Bulgaria, who have experienced 17.55% incoming cloud attacks/encounters. In third place is Belarus who had 10.83%, fourth is Ukraine with 10.35% and fifth is Bosnia with 7.06%.

The United Kingdom rank 17^th, due to their high number of cloud attack encounters in comparison to other European countries. 

Ireland are the least vulnerable country in Europe, where they had the lowest cybercrime encounter rate in every category, except from cloud provider attacks – where there were a recorded 0.36% of Azure accounts who faced incoming attacks.

The counties most likely to encounter cloud attacks

1. Netherlands
2. Bulgaria
3. France
4. United Kingdom
5. Finland
6. Germany
7. Austria
8. Lithuania
9. Italy
10. Poland

The Netherlands received the highest number of cloud provider related incoming attacks, with data stating that 16.28% of Azure accounts have faced breaches between January 2019 and October 2019. They were followed closely by Bulgaria (11.68%).

Other countries with a high number of cloud attack encounters were France (2.73%), United Kingdom (2.02%) and Finland (1.72%).

Accounts in Luxembourg, Slovakia, Estonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were not targeted by attackers seeking to compromise and weaponize virtual machines and other resources. They were estimated to have the lowest number of cloud provider related incoming attacks detected by Azure’s Security Centre.

The countries most likely to encounter cryptocurrency mining encounters

1. Belarus
2. Ukraine
3. Bosnia and Herzegovina
4. Serbia
5. Bulgaria
6. Romania
7. Lithuania
8. Croatia
9. Hungary
10. Latvia

On average, Belarus has the highest number of cryptocurrency mining encounters every month, with 0.42% of machines recording the issue, totalling to hundreds of thousands of machines in the country. Next is Ukraine (0.33%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (0.25%) and Bulgaria.

The least vulnerable country is Ireland, where only 0.01% of machines encountered cryptocurrency mining.  The United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Germany and Netherlands are the second least likely to encounter cryptocurrency mining, as only 0.02% of machines in each country had.

The countries most likely to encounter malware

1. Belarus
2. Ukraine
3. Bosnia and Herzegovina
4. Romania
5. Bulgaria
6. Lithuania
7. Hungary
8. Latvia
9. Spain
10. Greece

Belarus had the most malware encounters in Europe, with 10.17% of machines in the country encountering them every month on average.  In second place is Ukraine (9.57%), followed by Bosnia (6.76%), Romania (5.92%), and Bulgaria (5.66%).

The country with the least malware encounters is Ireland where only 0.7% of machines in the country encountered malware every month on average. Finland (1.27%), Norway (1.33%), Netherlands (1.33%) and Denmark (1.35%) were among the other countries least vulnerable to malware encounters.

The countries most likely to encounter ransomware

1. Ukraine
2. Belarus
3. Bosnia and Herzegovina
4. Romania
5. Bulgaria
6. Hungary
7. Latvia
8. Greece
9. Croatia
10. Lithuania

0.09% of machines in Ukraine encountered malware encounters on average every month, making them the most insecure to malware in Europe.  Belarus were second most vulnerable, with 0.06% of machines encountering malware, followed by Bosnia (0.05%), Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Greece and Croatia (0.04%).

Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Finland encountered the smallest number of ransomware threats, with only 0.01% of machines coming across them every month.

With the risk of cyber-crime high in many European countries, Aimée Ravacon from Specops Software has suggested three distinct tips to reduce your risk of attacks:

“1. Stop re-using passwords. When you reuse your passwords, you are opening yourself up to cyber-crime since attackers use your login information from one site to target another site. 

2. Use multi-factor authentication. Many online services now offer multi-factor authentication, but too few people are taking advantage of this extra security layer. This simple step just takes a minute but can protect you from falling victim. 

3. Don’t click on strange links. Phishing emails are designed to look real and can even appear to come from people you know. But clicking on links in a phishing email can open a backdoor for an attacker.”

Methodology:

1. Discover the most vulnerable
   countries to cloud provider related incoming attacks by finding the percentage
   of attacks on Microsoft Azure, detected by the Azure Security Centre, in each country
   from January 2018 – October 2019, using estimates from Microsoft’s Security
   Intelligence Report.
2. Discover the most vulnerable
   countries to cryptocurrency mining encounters, malware encounters and
   ransomware encounters by finding the monthly average percentage of machines
   that encountered these in each country from January 2018 – October 2019, using
   estimates from Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report.
3. Add up all the data to find
   which country has the highest percentage. The highest overall percentage was
   rated as the most cyber-insecure country, as this total shows they have had the
   largest number of attacks on average.

You may also like: How to stop different types of password attacks