Seattle, Boston, DC Top Cyber-crime Hot Spots List

by Brian Prince

Seattle finished first by a wide margin: It was the only city to score in the top 10 in every category. Nearly 68 percent of Seattle residents are regular Internet users, and almost 29 percent use it at least five times a day. In addition, more people in Seattle use the Internet to check their bank statements and pay their bills (26.7 percent) than in any other of the 50 largest U.S. cities. Seattle also placed sixth in cyber-crime.

Boston finished in second place overall due to high levels of cyber-crime (fifth place), risky behavior (fourth place) and WiFi availability (eighth place). Only two cities were more bothered by spam zombies than Beantown—Atlanta and Miami. Boston also has high rates of Internet usage, with more than 27 percent of users utilizing the Web for purchases.

The country’s capital ranked fourth in cyber-crime, fifth in WiFi hot spots, eighth in consumer expenditures and 11th in risky behaviors. It also ranked eighth in Internet access. All combined, this added up to the title of third-riskiest online city in the United States.

San Francisco received the highest marks among all cities for risky behavior and WiFi hot spots, and the second-highest marks for Internet access and consumer expenditures, according to the report. However, the city placed 17th in the cyber-crime category, preventing it from being closer to the top of the list.

Raleigh finished fifth due to high marks in Internet access (seventh), consumer expenditures (seventh) and risky behavior (sixth). Twenty-two percent of Raleigh residents use the Web to pay bills, and nearly 30 percent use it to make purchases from online shopping sites.

Atlanta recorded the highest number of cyber-crimes per capita in the United States, and has the most spam zombies and bots per capita of any city in the top 50. It also had the second-most attacks per capita of any of the cities surveyed. Residents are heavy users of online shopping sites and 26.2 percent more likely to use the Internet at least five times a day.

Minneapolis scored fairly high across the board, finishing in the top 10 for cyber-crime, risky behavior and WiFi hot spots. Minneapolis has 43.5 WiFi hot spots per 100,000 residents, and more than 21 percent use the Internet for financial reasons.

Denver ranked eighth overall due to a high volume of cyber-crime. The city ranks fifth in terms of spam zombies and bots per capita. In addition, more than 21 percent of its residents use the Internet at least five times per day, with nearly 10 percent using the Internet away from home.

Austin finished in the middle of the pack in terms of cyber-crime, but had high scores in the other categories to garner ninth place on the list. The theory is: the more online activity, the greater the chance of falling victim to cyber-crime. More than 22 percent of Austin residents use the Internet at least five times per day, which is 36 percent above average, and nearly 9 percent use the Internet away from home, which is 37.1 percent above average. Roughly 21 percent use the Web for financial transactions and almost 46 percent have broadband connections.

Portland placed in the top 10 due to having very high scores in risky behavior (placing fifth) and high numbers of WiFi hot spots (fourth). According to the report, Portland has more than 83 WiFi hot spots per 100,000 residents, which is 266 percent greater than the average of the top 50 cities. More than 53 percent of Portland residents use e-mail, which is 20.1 percent above average, and 30.1 percent of its residents purchase items online, which is 20.2 percent above average.