Britain has been named the eighth worse country in Europe for cybersecurity in new research.

The study from ESET analysed European countries based on a number of factors, including: exposure rank (with a lower score indicating higher exposure); commitment to cybersecurity (ranked between 0-1); the percentage of discovered malicious software on devices in the past three years; the percentage of social network or email accounts hacked in the past three years; the percentage of victims of bank cards or online banking fraud in the past three years; the percentage of victims of identity theft in the past three years; and the number of pieces of cybersecurity legislation.

The 10 countries with the best cybersecurity were as follows (score out of 10):

1. Portugal – 8.21
2. Lithuania – 7.99
3. Slovakia – 7.21
4. Greece – 7.03
5. Spain – 6.82
6. Estonia – 6.75
7. Latvia – 6.2
8. Finland – 6.09
9. Denmark – 6.08
10. Slovenia – 6.05

The 10 countries with the worst cybersecurity were as follows:

1. Romania – 3.27
2. Austria – 3.80
3. France – 4.36
4. Belgium – 4.37
5. Luxembourg – 4.4
6. Ireland – 5.36
7. Netherlands – 5.47
8. United Kingdom – 5.59
9. Sweden – 5.59
10. Hungary – 5.61


The UK had the lowest exposure rank in Europe, with a score of five, which indicates a higher exposure. But it also scored the highest for commitment to cybersecurity, with a score of 0.931 out of 1.

“No single measure – whether it’s the amount of legislation or the number of banking fraud victims – can tell the whole story when it comes to cybersecurity,” said Jake Moore, cybersecurity specialist, ESET. “Protecting citizens online is incredibly complicated, and there’s no one right way to do it. In practice, cyber safety can mean different things for different people, so this is not a case of ‘one size fits all’.”

Moore added: “Nonetheless, it’s important for nations to be aware of the actions taken across Europe and learn from one another wherever possible. A truly holistic approach to cybersecurity requires a breadth of knowledge about potential approaches, including how and when they work best.”

He said that while it’s disappointing to see the UK ranking so low in the index, it is encouraging that Britain has ranked highly for its commitment to cybersecurity.

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