Symantec has declared Detroit as the least risky online city in America. In a joint study with Sperling’s BestPlaces, Symantec released a report Norton’s Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities The U.S. cities under the greatest threat from cybercrime (PDF) (03-22-10) of the 50 riskiest places in America to be online and at the bottom of the list is Detroit.
The report indicates that Detroit is the least risky online city, with residents less likely to take part in risky online behavior. Detroit has low levels of Internet access, expenditures on computer equipment, and wireless Internet access. The city also ranked low in cybercrime, wireless Internet access, and Internet access generally compared to other cities. El Paso, Texas, and Memphis were the second and third safest cities, respectively as reported by eWeek.
Data from several sources were used to determine the rankings. The data came from Symantec Security Response as well as third-party data about online behavior, such as accessing WiFi hot-spots and online banking. Each city was scored across several categories. For example the number of malicious attacks per capita, prevalence of Internet use, and the number of bot-infected machines per capita.
Detroit ranked last in all categories including:
- Individual cybercrimes,
- WiFi and hotspots per capita,
- Annual expenditures per household on Internet Access and Computers,
- Adult Internet use.
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Up is down and down is up in Detroit. These are not promising statistics for Detroit. The depression “global financial crisis” has ravaged Detroit and southeastern Michigan for the past 11 years. These results are just another indicator of how far Detroit has fallen. Low levels of Internet access, not buying computer equipment along with slow and limited wireless Internet access cause the city to rank low in cybercrime. This is just like driving a car, the more you drive the more risks you take. Until the Motor City gets on the information super-highway there is little chance of Detroit moving forward.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
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