Cyprus is one of the world's top countries for cybercrime. A team of experts from the University of Oxford and UNSW helped create the World Cybercrime Index study, which was funded by CRIMGOV, a project supported by the European Union. The paper was written by Professor Ridhi Kashyap from Oxford University and Professor Nigel Phair from Monash University.
A total of 50 countries made the list. Cyprus was 42nd.
The study used data from a survey of 92 cybercrime experts from around the world. They were asked to name the countries where they thought cybercrime was most prevalent. The experts were then asked to consider each country in terms of the influence, professionalism and technical skills of cybercriminals. The study assessed five categories of cybercrime:
- Malware, accessing a compromised system, manufacturing tools.
- Attacks and blackmail (data encryption).
- Data theft (hacking, electronic fraud, account compromise).
- Business email compromise.
- Money laundering (money launderers, illegal virtual currency platforms).
Russia is the top country, followed by Ukraine, China, the United States, and Nigeria.
Other countries in the top ten were Romania, North Korea, the UK, Brazil and India. At the bottom of the list were Belize, Panama, Morocco, Tahiti, Laos and Leon.
The government of Cyprus is very careful about keeping its computer systems safe. It is the first country in the European Union to open a regional centre forcybersecurity. Currently, only Germany and France have such centres. However, they are based on local standards rather than European standards.