Are you living in a cyber crime hotspot?

Thanks to a new study, you can now find out. According to research from Symantec, the top 10 riskiest U.S. cities for cyber crime, in descending order, are: Seattle; Boston; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; Raleigh, N.C.; Atlanta; Minneapolis; Denver; Austin, Texas; and Portland, Ore. The findings are based on an analysis of the 50 largest cities in the United States; to determine each city’s rank, researchers looked at cyber attacks and malware data per capita on computers, as well as on behavioral factors, like the prevalence for residents to shop and bank online.

Among the interesting results of the cyber crime study are these findings:

• Only Atlanta and Miami receive more spam than Boston.

• In Raleigh, 22% of residents pay bills online and nearly 30% make purchases from sites such as Amazon and eBay - a significant amount higher than the American average.

• Atlanta has the highest number of cyberattacks and infections per capita in the U.S.

• Seattle, named the riskiest city, had the top scores in all the study's categories.

Symantec has also released a similar study ranking Canadian cities. Read the Network World or Computerworld articles to learn more.