A number of California cities were ranked as the most dangerous when it comes to Cybercrime.
The rankings were released by Symantec earlier in the week and were based off cybercrimes data such as the number of malicious attacks, potential malware infections, spam zombies and bot infected computers, among other categories.
The study analyzed the Top 50 largest cities in America, by population. San Francisco was the only city in California to rank in the Top 10. According to Symantec’s Executive Summary for the rankings:
“It may come as a surprise that this high-tech hub ranked fourth overall, but San San Francisco has nearly 113 WiFi hotspots per 100,000 residents. To put this in
Francisco received the highest marks among all cities for risky behavior and WiFi
hotspots and the second highest marks for Internet access and consumer expenditures. It was only a relatively low number of cybercrimes that prevented San Francisco from claiming the top spot overall.
perspective, that figure is over 360 percent higher than the average city! The average San Franciscan spends over $300 annually on computer hardware ($311.77) and nearly $50 per year on software ($47.64). More people in San Francisco have broadband Internet connections (59.8 percent) than in any other city. This figure is 51.5 percent higher than the typical American city. San Franciscans also spend more time making purchases on online shopping websites than residents of any other top 50 city. In fact, more people in San Francisco use the Internet at least once a day (over 56 percent) than in any other city on the list. Finally, 62.3 percent of residents use email; that is 39.3 percent higher than the American average.”
Also ranking in were San Diego (No. 14), Sacramento (No. 16), Oakland (No. 18), San Jose (No. 20), Los Angeles (No. 30), Long Beach (No. 45) and Fresno (No. 47).
To see the complete rankings, click here.
According to the summary, “Cybercrime is a growing threat that affects everyone who goes online for communication, shopping, banking, education, and entertainment. While we rarely see online threats that are noisy and massively spread in a matter of minutes or hours, cyberthreats are still a reality.
“In fact, cybercriminals’ methods are devious, sophisticated and more organized than ever before. They hide behind phony emails, fake websites, hidden malware, and online ads. One wrong click is all it takes for thieves to steal your private information and then sell it to the highest bidder on the Internet black market.
“This study of Norton’s Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities provides insight into the country’s cities that are most vulnerable to today’s cybercrime.”
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