The Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin
Dublin has ranked as the sixth riskiest city for cyber crime and cyber crime factors, a survey by internet security firm Norton and research group Sperling’s BestPlaces suggests.
The survey of 100 cities looked at several factors that could impact online safety, such as malware attempts, unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots, use of social networking sites and the amount of PCs and smartphones used in the cities.
The survey revealed that Dublin had a lower level of PC and smartphone use compared to the other cities in the survey, and it had an average number of Wi-Fi hotspots and cyber crime attempts, the Irish Times reported.
The city that came in at No 1 in the survey is Manchester, followed by Amsterdam, Stockholm, Paris and London. Manchester came in at the top spot due to its high number of Wi-Fi hotspots, malware attempts, high rate of internet access and social networking use.
It’s not all bad news for Manchester, Dublin and the other cities, though. The cities with the greatest cyber crime risk factors did not necessarily mean they had a higher rate of computer virus infection, the researchers said, adding that this may be the result of users taking precautions to protect themselves from cyber criminals.
