Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Chicago Avoids the Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities
Monday, March 22, 2010 by Bryan Anderson
Although we've talked about the success and downfalls of the Internet Era, we now have
more research to prove that where you access internet can
vary in degree of danger.
In summary, bring an extra piece of security if you're ever on a
business trip to Seattle.
Symantec, with assistance from Sperling's BestPlaces, gathered
research and figures regarding the number of attacks, spam bots,
infected computers, variety of internet access, and total Wi-Fi
hotspots to provide a scale of "risk" when accessing the internet
within a given city.
This rating scale included the amount of online
behavior associated with high-level risk (i.e. shopping online or
accessing financial information) and the number of cybercrimes per
capita.
Here are the top 10 riskiest online cities:
- Seattle
- Boston
- Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Atlanta
- Minneapolis
- Denver
- Austin, Texas
- Portland, Ore.
As you can tell, Chicago is in the clear for the time being. The
50 most populated cities were considered in the study and the Top
10 seem to have no geographical correlation. Anywhere from Seattle
and Portland in the northwest to D.C. and Boston on the east coast
can be prime locations for cybercriminals.
Norton offers three safety tips, no matter where you
live or where your city ranks on their list:
- Use legitimate security software that offers comprehensive
protection against known and unknown online threats
- Always keep your computer's operating system and the software
you run on it patched
- Stay educated - learn more about the realities of cybercrime
and how to stay protected
Don't forget to protect your mobile hardware as well. Many
people face the hardest of times when their hard drive dies
and they "forgot" to back it up. Keeping up with security updates
and backing up your data will save you an enormous amount of time -
which will go toward building your business instead of solving
technical problems.
Until next time -
Matthew Hymel
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
Rochester
IT Support & Consulting
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