PHL one of the least cyber-secure nations worldwide–UK SEO firm

The Philippines is one of the least cyber-secure countries in the world, according to a study conducted by a United Kingdom-based search engine optimization (SEO) firm.

A study done by Reboot Digital PR Services showed that the country’s cyber danger score was 62.7 out of 100. This ranked the Philippines 9th out of 25 Asian countries and 20th out of 87 countries in the world.

The least cyber-secure countries in the world are Indonesia and Cyprus whose overall score is 82.8 out of 100 while the most cyber secure country is Finland with a score of 12.6 out of 100.

“The Philippines [62.7] places in ninth with 19 monthly drive-by downloads and an average of 880 malware hosting sites online, which is only 20 sites more per 100,000 URLs than that of its relatively close neighbor, Malaysia—who ranks in third,” Reboot Digital PR Services said in a statement.

“Nomads spend their time relaxing on the pristine beaches and swimming in the glistening waters that your country is known for. Those more in tune with the thrum of city life may head to Manila to find out why it’s dubbed the city that ‘never sleeps,’” it added.

Reboot Digital PR Services conducted the study to identify the most cyber-secure and cyber insecure countries for digital nomads, particularly those on work-cation.

This research analyzed the cyber threat landscape within each country considering the prevalence of phishing and malware along with botnet networks.

In the Philippines, the study found, 7.98 restaurants and cafes per million are offering free Wi-fi connection. In this category, the country ranked 15th out of 87 countries with the least number of establishments offering free Wi-fi connection.

The data also showed the country ranked 14th overall with a monthly average of 19 per 100,000 URLs as drive-by download pages.

The Philippines also ranked 22nd overall with 200 per 100,00 URLs deemed as “phishing” sites while the country ranked 24th overall with 880 per 100,000 URLs as malware hosting sites.

The data also showed the country ranked 29th overall since 790 out of 100,000 Internet users have compromised computers.

Globally, Indonesia and Cyprus, both popular destinations for tourists and digital nomads, shared the crown for the least cyber-secure country in the world.

They were followed by Malaysia and Vietnam with cyber danger scores of 79.9 and 78.2 out of 100. Rounding up the top 5 least cyber- secure countries in the world is Bulgaria with a cyber danger score of 77.6 out of 100.

The company used Python data mining tools to extract cyber-security statistics from over 90 Microsoft Security Intelligence reports in 2017.

This resulted in a comprehensive dataset containing the number of phishing sites, malware hosting sites, compromised computers (part of gamarue botnet), and average monthly drive-by download pages for over 90 countries.

Each statistic collected, the company said, was presented on a per 100,000 URLs basis, with the exception of compromised computers presented per 100,000 Internet users.