According to the 'World Cybercrime Index', India ranked in the 10th place in cybercrime, especially in the collection of ransom being the major type of cyberattack among others.

The index consists of a team of international researchers who compile and rank 100 countries, identifying main cybercrime prone areas under various categories like ransomware, credit card scam and other scams.

In the index, Russia has taken the top spot, followed by Ukraine, China, the US, Nigeria and Romania. At the seventh is North, the UK and Brazil at eighth and ninth positions according to the research published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Major types of crime in the virtual world were sorted out by the experts under the researchers’ request and countries were chosen on basis of their significant contribution to each of them

To name a few, major categories identified by researchers were technical products and services such as malware and compromising systems; attacks and extortion including ransomware; data and identity theft including hacking, compromising accounts and credit cards; scams such as advance fee fraud; and cashing out or money laundering involving illegitimate virtual currency.

The survey was conducted from March to October 2021, which the team received 92 complete survey responses.

Out of top ten countries, six appeared for each cybercrime category, as discovered by the researchers. Additionally, it was discovered that cybercrime prone countries specialized in particular types of cyberattacks.

Among these top ranking countries, some specialized in cybercrime types with middling technical complexity like data and identity theft and others in both high-tech and low-tech crimes, according to the experts.

India was said to have found its hands deep in scams. Romania and the US were found to specialize in both high-tech and low-tech crimes, and India appeared to have a ‘balanced hub’ specializing in mid-tech crimes.

It is said that each country has a specific profile with a unique dimension.

"We now have a deeper understanding of the geography of cybercrime, and how different countries specialize in different types of cybercrime," said study co-author Miranda Bruce from the University of Oxford, UK.

The experts contacted by the researchers were professionals engaged in cybercrime intelligence, investigation and attribution for at least five years, were "not actively involved in tracking offenders" and had an "excellent" reputation among peers.