Belgium Tops List Of Nations Most Vulnerable To Hacking (theguardian.com)
Alex Hern, reporting for The Guardian:A new "heat map of the internet" has revealed the countries most vulnerable to hacking attacks, by scanning the entire internet for servers with their front doors wide open. Produced by information security firm Rapid7, the National Exposure Index finds that the most exposed country in the world is Belgium, followed by Tajikistan, Samoa and Australia. The U.S. comes 14th and the UK 23rd. [...] Tom Beardsley, one of the report's three authors, was surprised by his own findings. "We expected to find that the most exposed countries were also the richest," he explained. The richest countries (by aggregate GDP, which place large countries like China near the top of the list) were likely to have the most net-connected devices, which should mean they proportionally have the most potential for damage. "If you're a rich country, you have a lot of internet. But we didn't find any correlation between the number of nodes and the exposure."
The Guardian flubbed its headline. I read the Rapid7 report and the most worrying detail was the fact that there are still over 15 million Internet-available Telnet ports, 7.8 million MySQL ports, 8.8 million RDP, and 5.2 million VNC ports. https://information.rapid7.com...
More likely they'll blame the EU. It's closer and more tangible, and it's far from impossible that it's actually really what is to blame.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Is vulnerable to everything.
BRB, going to hack Belgium.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
As with everything else, the Europeans will blame the US for this.
The Belgiums can blame the UK, it was the GCHQ that hacked Belgacom, their biggest telco.
Table-ized A.I.
This does not make any point nor sense. Was it supposed to be funny ? a troll ?
As the great Nate Diaz would say: I'm not surprised, motherfuckers! All four countries are being targeted by relatively large populations of hostile nations (Pakistan ---- India, Israel ---- Islamic world, Vietnam ---- China, Singapore ---- Islamic world AND China).
In my mind it seems clear that nations who have been targeted for some time, have built up better "defenses" i.e. practices and protocols.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
You're going to be vulnerable to hacking from badies if you want the goodies to be able to do their job.
As with everything else, the Europeans will blame the US for this. Somehow. When they don't like something, it's always the fault of the US and how the US supposedly forces their laws on Europe. I can't imagine this will be any different.
Well there is that DNS system that the US wants to maintain control over, so we can blame the US for that!
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
"If you're a rich country, you have a lot of internet. But we didn't find any correlation between the number of nodes and the exposure."
Just like poverty is not the only determining factor of crime. Blacks commit more crimes than whites and asians, period. The excuses wear thin.
It's because their leaders keep waffling.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'm feeling conflicted at the fact that Canada isn't on there... And I'm thinking that maybe it was just overlooked for some reason, there's no way we are more secure than some of the other countries on there...
I recall this from 30 years ago (when in middle school):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
BlameBillCosby.com
I find the numbers hard to believe. If I look at the full list in the original article, I miss large countries like Italy or even India. Also, smaller but very internet-active countries like the Netherlands are missing.
I again forgot to halt my honeypots in Belgium.
"Belgiums". I think you meant "Belgians". Even though Belgium has different regions if you divide it according to the spoken language, there still is just one "Belgium" as far as I am aware ;-)
More than half of Belgium is on ipv6, the test only includes ipv4 hosts.
And since when does 'open port' equal 'vulnerability' ?
European Linux user, living in Antwerp
It's no coincidence that Belgium, the country that gave us Drupal, is #1.
Nope, one part of the country will blame the Walloons and the other part will blame the Flemmings. But those who don't want to go the way of blaming the other community will probably blame the socialists when they are liberal or conservative while the socialists will blame the conservatives or the liberals (or both).
They will organize a committee with representatives of all parties who will 'investigate' the problem, and after many tax paid diners, travels and expense bills, they come to the conclusion it is a problem with the structure of the state. Then when the problem is know, they will blame the Walloons or the Flemmings or the socialists or the conservatives or the liberals, but nobody will ever blame themselves.
It comes to no suprise. Belgium is a dysfunctional state. I'd move EU parliament to Strasbourg in a heart beat, if I could.
Being Belgian myself, I know that in most companies everything works by making political compromises. For example which solution gets chosen is a political compromise between two or more opinions. Usually a ugly monster that works for nobody comes out of it.
And that doesn't make things more secure.
You think the organizations in the European area of Brussels rely on the Belgian government for their security?
No.