Norton teamed up with independent research firm Sperling’s BestPlaces to uncover the nation’s top 10 cities that have the highest number of cyber crime risk factors. This year marks the second time Norton and Sperling’s BestPlaces have collaborated to highlight the various factors that contribute to potential risk. Cities with the greatest risk factors do not necessarily correlate with the highest infection rates, reflecting the fact that many consumers are taking precautions to keep themselves safe.
“In our examination of the riskiest online cities, we’ve considered a number of factors that can potentially affect online safety,” said Bert Sperling, founder of Sperling’s BestPlaces and lead researcher for the analysis. “By looking at data from consumer lifestyle habits as well as cyber crime data provided by Symantec, maker of Norton products, we’re able to provide a holistic view of the various factors that put a person at potential risk.”
Sperling’s BestPlaces determined the per-capita rankings by examining several consumer behaviors –— from the prevalence of PCs and smartphones, to ecommerce, social networking and accessing potentially unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots, among others.
Click through for the 10 cities facing the highest potential cyber crime risk, as identified by Norton and Sperling’s BestPlaces.
As the leading riskiest online city, Washington, D.C., placed exceptionally high in almost all the categories measuring potential risk, and had the second-highest reported usage of smartphones. The nation’s capital also ranked high among cyber crime data factors, including attempted malware infections and attempted Web attacks.
The second city on the list, Seattle, which was the riskiest online city in 2010, scored at the top in the majority of the categories surveyed, including email usage and social networking activity.
Both Seattle (which ranked second) and San Francisco, reported high numbers of Wi-Fi hotspots and hours spent on the Internet.
Residents of Atlanta and Boston, which ranked fourth and fifth respectively, share high rankings among the cyber crime data. In particular, Atlanta recorded the highest per-capita number of spamming IP addresses.
Both Boston and Atlanta’s inhabitants exhibit a tendency toward potentially risky online consumer behavior, such as online financial transactions.
According to the research, Denver placed high among potentially risky factors within the cyber crime data.
Minneapolis
Minneapolis also placed high among potential risk factors.
Sacramento, the only city that wasn’t included on the 2010 top 10 list, ranked above average across all categories.
Raleigh reported high levels of risky online behavior.
As did Austin.
