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17th April 2024 Issue no. 701
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UK named best country in the world for online security on Safer Internet Day
Britain has been named best country in the world for online security in Microsoft's first ever Digital Civility Index, released to coincide with Safer Internet Day. The Index comes from research conducted among adults and teenagers in 14 different countries. In Microsoft's words , the index measures the "extent of negative civil and personal safety interactions and their consequences."
The company divides those interactions, into four different categories: Behavioral, Intrusive, Reputational and Sexual. Each category contained several individual risks. Microsoft calculated the scores based on how often individuals were affected by these risks.
The higher the "Digital Civility" score equates to a lower expectation of online risk in that country.
In the 14 countries measured, the UK has the highest digital civility score and therefore the least chance of people encountering risk online. By contrast, South Africa has the lowest score.
"Almost six in ten of people in the UK reported a consequence from exposure to an online risk. This was significantly lower than the international average," explained Microsoft.
"The most likely consequence from online risk exposure was a loss of trust both online (33%) and offline (23%). As a result, people tended to become more stressed and withdrawn."
Overall concern about online risks was the lowest in the UK among the fourteen countries surveyed.
Not surprisingly, concern was much lower at the category and individual item levels compared to the international averages.
Intrusive (37%) and Behavioral (36%) risks were ranked the most worrisome in the UK although much lower than the international averages.
"Reputational and Sexual risks showed even larger gaps with their corresponding international averages."
Microsoft is one of many technology companies getting involved with Safer Internet Day.
15th February 2017