AVG, a popular antivirus vendor, released a report showing the risk of web browsing in different countries.
There are a number of stats that AVG pulls from the data, which is generated from its customers around the world. That might also leave it open for discussion why the imaginary borders matter and how they change statistical tracking. Different cultures might be more prone to certain malicious attacks like social engineering or Nigerian royalty scams, but the headline says the information is for travelers, which would mean culture is migratory.
Another given that needs to be forgiven is that the information is gathered from individuals that have installed antivirus protection. If a culture had an aversion to AV protection, they would clearly be on the receiving end of worse attacks although they may not have more frequent encounters with malware. Browsing habits, interest, and how much those are targetted seems to be a better metric.
Perhaps North America comes in as the worst continents because more people look for free AV and install AVG. More Internet-connected people and a concentration of English speakers probably lends North America to being a popular target. We probably get more than our fair share as well as being a biased stat.
Below are the chances of being attacked by continent and country:
North America 1 in 51
Europe 1 in 72
Asia 1 in 102
Africa 1 in 108
South America 1 in 164
Safest Countries:
Sierra Leone. 1 in 696
Niger. 1 in 442
Japan. 1 in 403
Riskiest Countries:
Turkey. 1 in 10
Russia. 1 in 15
Armenia. 1 in 24
More interesting would have been the source of the attacks than the source of the victims. Can you show that Russian and Chinese servers host malware or are the destination for redirects? In a globalized world with a network that doesn’t care where you’re located, there isn’t much that can be done to change a country’s frequency of being attacked.