In the world of cyber crime it is very easy to get drawn into the stereotypes that are commonly bandied about regarding who does what. 'The Chinese', 'The Israelis', 'The Nigerians' and 'The Russians' are often talked about in grossly generalised terms, sometimes underpinned by hard fact, sometimes not.
The most important factor in understanding the limitations of such generalisations is that malware and hack attacks can be launched from anywhere and by anybody. Likewise we have to be aware that criminals will go to great lengths to obscure their tracks.
So drawing a definitive map of cyber crime is therefore far from an exact science and assuming any one country has sole rights to any one crime would be a mistake. Cyber crime is truly a global problem.
Yet despite all this there are still some clear regional trends, though this is a far from comprehensive list.
The US
With a high number of Internet connections and a rich history of Web- and computer-literate criminals, the US is understandably the major focus for much of the discussion into the current global problem of cyber crime.
That ISP figure points towards a hidden menace which further blurs the boundaries of cyber crime -- the sheer number of PCs that have been compromised and are churning out spam and malware unbeknownst to their owners. The most recent figures from MessageLabs suggest almost one-fifth (18.1 percent) of all compromised machines are located in the US -- and it's a fair bet, based on recent police investigations, that many of those doing the infecting are also US-based.
This isn't to say that compromised PCs -- or botnets -- are solely a US problem, far from it. Criminals care little for where their botnets are located, as long as they are connected to a broadband connection which can be abused.
The US also accounted for about one-fifth of Internet attacks and probes last year, according to figures from Kaspersky Labs. It was second only to China.
China
China leads the way in terms of originating Internet attacks, accounting for just over one-quarter of all reports last year of Internet attacks and probes, according to Kaspersky Labs. The country also has a reputation for relaying large quantities of spam.
China boasts a huge population and a rapid rate of Internet adoption. As connections to the Internet grow and populations become more Web savvy, those countries with the largest populations will naturally represent an ever-larger threat in proportional terms. It is a numbers game to a degree.
Of course China will originate more internet attacks than the UK, for example, but then it has double the number of Internet users already. However, the severity of China's Internet crime problem is greater than the UK's by an order of magnitude far in excess of double.
The country's mechanisms for dealing with the problem and its government's willingness to address the issue are also at a less mature stage than other countries. Such factors make the process of understanding the scale of each country's liability difficult and make comparisons largely impossible.
Russia and the Baltic States
Despite the popular myth that 'The Russians' are the greatest threat to Internet security, Russia accounted for only two percent of Internet attacks and probes last year. That puts the country down in sixth place, according to Kaspersky Labs, supporting security expert Eugene Kaspersky's understandably patriotic debunking of this theory.
The eponymous founder of Kaspersky Labs blames the stereotype on the American media, suggesting propaganda and political point-scoring has done little to paint a clearer picture of which countries are responsible for what kinds of attacks.
Nonetheless, the reputation of Russia and the Baltic States has certainly been tarnished in recent years by a growing trend towards blackmail with threats of denial of service attacks. And while this is in no way unique to these parts of the former Soviet Union -- as all crimes, if successful, will develop a global appeal -- experts claim it is a crime that was pioneered in the region -- though targets were often based in the US or Western Europe.
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