An international team of researchers has published a first-ever global cybercrime index based on global research into the true origins of cybercrime.

Russia is easily at the top of the brand new World Cybercrime Index (WCI). This index is the result of extensive research conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and other institutions worldwide. Because cybercriminals are efficient at hiding their location, researchers asked 92 cybercrime experts around the world to create an index based on their assessment.

Ecosystem in numbers

The WCI is based on the nomination of countries by these experts in three key categories: impact of activities on victims, cybercrime professionalism and technical expertise. The researchers examined five areas of cybercrime: offering products and services, attacks and extortion, data and identity theft, fraud and finally money laundering. These areas encompass most of the digital criminal ecosystem, where certain parties with technical expertise develop tools, other criminals use them for other purposes, and criminals need to finally get their stolen money without going to jail.

In all of these categories, Russia emerges as the clear winner. The researchers note that the production of technical tools and services is ubiquitous in Russia and the country also scores high in attacks and data and identity theft. Finally, the experts name Russia as a top location for money laundering.

The only category in which President Putin’s Russia will not win the gold medal is that of fraud. Nigeria is the absolute champion there. What is striking is that less tech-savvy countries perform better when it comes to fraud, while countries with state-sponsored cybercrime such as Russia are significantly more involved in complex digital attacks.

Ukraine and Romania

According to the researchers, Ukraine is in second place in the WCI. According to the index, this country, like bronze medalist China, appears to have a fairly advanced cybercrime ecosystem. The entire top three are characterized by the development of technical solutions. The USA is in fourth place, but performs significantly worse when it comes to malware development. In the USA, data and identity theft is the most important parameter. The top 5 is closed by the aforementioned Nigeria, which earns its place almost entirely through fraud and some data theft.

The first European country on the list is Romania at number six. Data and identity theft also play an important role there. The criminals in the country appear to be mainly practical implementers who buy and use tools manufactured in other countries.

With the scientifically based World Cybercrime Index, the researchers want to create an objective list of countries that are associated with the corresponding crime. This is intended to help security specialists focus their resources on the right places. The research, funded by the European Union, was published in Plos One.