Riskiest online cities in Canada?

Recently, Canada's riskiest cities have been ranked in terms of online security.The goal was to create a "subjective" ranking of cities that have the highest number of "potential risk factors for cybercrime," said a news release from Symantec.


Burlington, Ontario has been ranked the riskiest online city in Canada for the second time in a row. Three out of the top four cities are present in British Columbia, including Vancouver at the third position.


The overall rankings considered cities to be 'riskier' if they had:

• Higher rates of cybercrime in the form of web attacks, malware attempts, spamming IP addresses and bot attacks.
• A larger number of Wi-Fi hotspots per 100,000 residents.
• Higher annual household expenditures on computers, internet and smartphones.
• Higher rates of online shopping, email and banking.
• Higher rates of social networking use.

Not surprisingly, out of the top 10 least riskiest online cities in Canada, seven of them are found in the province of Quebec including Gatineau, Sherbrooke, and Quebec City. Apparently the Quebecers are "less technologically sophisticated" according to Norton, the internet security software company.