Australia scores in the middle of online risks

Where in the world are you most likely to be hit by a malicious computer attack or virus? According to internet security company AVG Technologies, it’s the Caucasus region, with web surfers in Turkey, Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan all being the most likely to face threats while online.

However, at the other end of the scale, some of the world’s safest surfers can be found in Japan and Taiwan, while seven of the 10 safest countries in which to surf the internet are in Africa. As a continent, South America was ‘safest’, and North America ‘riskiest’. Meanwhile, globally, your chances of being attacked while online on any given day are 1 in 73.

By compiling data for 144 countries (including Australia and New Zealand), involving 127 million PCs, AVG was able to look at the incidence of security threats that its software had to deal with in the last week of July 2010. From these figures, AVG was able to average out the likelihood of the average web user facing a web security attack. Key results are as follows:

• Turkey leads the league table for the world’s riskiest web surfers, with AVG’s software having to step in to protect one in 10 using the internet. Web users in Russia (1 in 14 were hit), Armenia (1 in 24) and Azerbaijan (1 in 39) also suffer high rates of attacks.

• Other areas where web surfers are disproportionately at risk include Bangladesh (1 in 41), Pakistan (1 in 48) and, in SE Asia, Vietnam and Laos (where the chances of facing an attack are both 1 in 42).

• Closer to home Australia ranked 37th (1 in 75 attack ratio), while New Zealand came in at 63rd (1 in 103).

• What about other major Western countries? The US is at number nine when it comes to the riskiest places to go online (1 in 48), UK is ranked 31st (1 in 63), while German web surfers come in at number 41 (1 in 83).

• However, other major developed nations fared much better with web surfers steering clear of suspicious websites. Though Sierra Leone (1 in 692) and Niger (1 in 442) were ‘safer’, if you look at broadband penetration in these countries as well as overall internet use, surfing the web in Japan (1 in 404 attacked) arguably offers the safest experience.

• Meanwhile, Taiwan (1 in 248 attacked), Argentina (1 in 241 attacked) and France (1 in 224 attacked) all came in the top 20 list of the world’s safest surfers.

According to AVG spokesperson, Roger Thomson, this research should also serve as a wake-up call to people going abroad. Very often you may access your files on a computer that doesn’t belong to you, or you may access a shared network - neither of which, incidentally, are things the company would ever recommend.

“In those cases, we would urge that web users exercise caution, not only when it comes to going online in our top 50 risk list, but in general."

The research involved taking data from 127 million AVG installations across 144 countries.