A new study has ranked the countries of the world according to their cybersecurity posture, with some potentially surprising results.
Proxyrack employed various metrics to assess how at risk each country is from cyberattacks, including its digital development and cyber legislation. It concluded that the most secure country in the world is Denmark, with a risk score of just 1.87 out of ten, while the least secure is Panama (9.70).
Scandinavia dominates the top three most secure countries, with Sweden and Finland ranking second and third respectively. The top eight most secure countries are all European, with the UK placing sixth. The US and Canada are ninth and tenth respectively.
Most and least secure countries
The reason for Denmark's claim to the top spot is due to its high level of digital development and low cybersecurity exposure index. The report attributes this at least in part to the government's implementation of its National Strategy for Cyber and Information Security in 2022.
Meanwhile, Panama was considered the least secure due to it being the least digitally developed country and having one of the worst cybersecurity exposure index scores. It was also most at risk to money laundering and terrorist financing activities.
The cybersecurity exposure index is measured by taking into account various datasets, such as Microsoft's malware and ransomware encounter rate, as well as cryptomining rates, cloud provider attack data, and a nation's commitment to cybersecurity.
Thailand and Belarus were the second and third most at-risk countries from cybercrime. However, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the lowest national cybersecurity score, which assess how well regulations related to cybersecurity are implemented. The UAE also has one of the highest average loss rates from cyberattacks, with each attack in the country costing $2.6m on average.
Uruguay, South Korea, and Switzerland were the countries with the fewest number of cyber laws, with just two pieces of legislation each. Uruguay was also ranked as the sixth most at risk country to cybercrime, whereas South Korea and Switzerland appeared in neither the top or bottom ten.
