With the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns were enforced in many countries that hampered day to day activities for many civilians. To find solace in those trying times, many of them turned towards the Internet.
This digital world had the capability of bringing the physical world at your fingertips digitally. Naturally there was an increase in the number of users as compared to previous years. To put things in to perspective, about 70% increase was reported as compared to pre pandemic times.
However with the advent of new users to technologies such as the Internet, people with malicious intents are attracted to such spaces like flies to a lamp.
Such people target people hoping they would fall in to their trap. Once they do get entrapped, hackers will then exploit them for personal financial gain or purely for kicks. Therefore it is important for people to be informed about the dangers of the Internet and how to safeguard themselves from such evil people.
However not every person can be saved. But what can be done is that justice can be provided for the victim. In this 21st century it has become important for countries to become more aware of their cyber security as well as that of their citizens.
Hackers are always on the lookout for weak links in security systems to gain access to data which they can use for their own personal benefit. Therefore it has become the need of the hour to have a strong and well established cyber security force to combat such threats.
Every year, the International telecommunication Union or the ITU, which is a specialised branch of the United States, releases a Global Cyber Security Index, or simply put, the GCI. The purpose of this index is to rank countries not by their military might, but how strong their cyber security forces.
In 2020, ITU released their fourth edition of the GCI which ranked ten countries based on their digital might. This encourages countries to take cyber security threats seriously as well as encourage developing nations to put in more efforts for their nation’s security and the latest edition of the GCI is a testament to that.
The process of identifying each country’s cyber strength depends on five parameters: legal measures, technical measures, organisational measures, capacity development and co-operation all of which is tallied to generate an overall score.
Each country is asked a series of 82 questions where 20 indicators are measured. Let us first take a look at the top 10 countries with the most powerful cyber security forces and then take a look at their individual performances.
Table of contents
India:
India has jumped from the 47th spot which was assigned to it in the 2018 edition of the Global Cyber Security Index, directly to the 10th spot with a score of 97.5 which is proof of the nation’s commitment and diligence towards protecting its cyber space.
United States of America:
USA sits at the top of the list with an imposing overall score of 100. With the country being a global super power, it’s no surprise that it experiences a massive number of cyber attacks each year. However this gives rise to forces that try to combat such attacks. About 58% of the world’s cyber security companies operate out of USA.
United Kingdom:
With a score of 99.54, United Kingdom comes in at a close second in respect to their cyber security forces.
Saudi Arabia:
Being one of the world’s leading supplier of oil, it should come as no surprise that Saudi Arabia shares the spot with UK with a similar score of 99.54.
Estonia:
This Baltic country has made its presence known by bagging the third spot on the index with a score of 99.48 and thus coming in at a close third.
South Korea:
Coming in the number four spot with a score of 98.52, we have South Korea whose cyber security force has made tremendous strides.
Singapore:
Singapore shares the fourth spot with South Korea in the Global Cyber Security Index.
Spain:
Spain is the third country to score 98.52 thus securing its place amongst South Korea and Singapore.
Russia:
With a country as huge as Russia and being a global super power, it has bagged the number 5 spot with an overall score of 98.06.
United Arab Emirates:
This middle-east country has made its presence known as its cyber security force bags the 5th spot alongside Russia.
Malaysia:
This south-east Asian country shares the spot with United Arab Emirates and Russia to bag the 5th spot.
Lithuania:
This Baltic country alongside its breath taking natural beauty is known for its formidable cyber defence systems as it bags the 6th spot with an overall score of 97.93.
Japan:
With the massive strides that Japan has taken in the field of technology, it should come as no surprise to see Japan bag the 7th spot with an overall score of 97.82.
Canada:
Canada has managed to bag a score of 97.67 thus making it the 8th most formidable cyber security force in this list.
France:
France scored an overall score of 97.60, thus making it the 9th country in this list.
With this we conclude the list for the Top 10 Cyber Security Forces around the world. With every passing year, countries are becoming more aware of the need to protect their cyber space and thus in turn equipping and upgrading their arsenal to combat cyber attacks. Having an impregnable defence system both physically and virtually has become an important need as one can never pinpoint from which front an attack might be launched.
With this we conclude this article and hope that we were able to provide some insights on to the top 10 country’s cyber security might.
