Burlington, Ont. seen as hotbed for cybercrimes

Lynn Hargrove, director of consumer solutions at Symantec Canada, says Internet security company Norton has released a list of the top cities in Canada that are most at risk for cybercrime. She also explains how Canadians can protect themselves.

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ctvtoronto.ca

Date: Wednesday Feb. 22, 2012 11:29 PM ET

For the second year in a row, Burlington, Ont. has been deemed the riskiest city for cybercrime in the country.

The report, commissioned by Symantec, the makers of the Norton anti-virus protection software, highlights the potential risk factors that make consumers potentially vulnerable to cybercrime.

The annual study looked at several factors including actual cybercrimes that took place in the city including attempted malware infections, attempted web attacks, attempted spamming and attempted bots that run automated tasks over the Internet.

It also studied social factors such as how much money people spend on PCs, the number of Wi-Fi hotspots in the city, prevalence of social networking within the population and access to the Internet.

The 10 riskiest cities are:

Burlington, Ont.
Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Vancouver, B.C.
Langley, B.C.
Calgary, Alta.
Fredericton, N.B.
Toronto, Ont.
New Westminster, B.C.
Edmonton, Alta.
Victoria, B.C.

"It's important to understand that you are not going to get a virus as soon as you walk into Burlington, but there are social factors that make you more at risk and those are the things that consumers need to be aware of," said Lynn Hargrove, director of customer solutions at Symantec Canada, told CTV's Canada AM. "Basically the best practice is to be surf safe."

Burlington was a prime candidate for the online risks due to its growth and affluence, Hargrove said. Residents are spending money on PCs, they have numerous devices connected to the Internet and they are tech savvy. This increased activity inevitably puts them in the riskier category.

The growing reliance on smartphones has also caused a problem for cybercrime, Hargrove said.

"The explosion of smartphones, Internet use, instant messaging has changed the landscape. People don't understand that the things that are on your smartphone are pretty much the same as their PC and they need to protect that smartphone. They need to make sure that they can lock it down."

And the burgeoning use of free Wi-Fi has also proven to be a hotbed for criminal activity as most have poor security and do not encrypt the data before its passes through cyberspace. This makes it easy for hackers to steal personal information, Hargrove said.

Comments are now closed for this story

Alison
said

More reasons why Canadians need the C-30 cybercrime fighting bill.

pg
said

Jeez ..
Never knew that..

I live in Burlington..
Always thought it was a quiet , affluent and upscale city in the GTA

annie o nimmus
said

Burlington has more millionaires, more money than any other city. People with nothing better to do but to go places and do things online that they shouldn't.

There is no reason that we should respond to stupidity with more stupidity by passing bill C-30. That universally criticized bill will just bring on more crime, make it harder to find, make the Internet more insecure (according to CIRA, our net's boss), chill free speech, just to serve the desires of some wealthy media companies, (since it will be used mostly to police copyright.)

Brad
said

The internet is no different than anything else. You if you;re note prepared to accept the risk of walking into a biker bar and leaving your wallet on the table while you go to the bathroom, you probably don't want to do your online purchasing on a free wifi connection.

What this article doesn't discuss is that just because Burlington is the focus of this activity doesn't mean that these crimes are being perpetrated by people from Burlington.

Cyber-crime tends to be transient based on access to financial resources. It is because this community is affluent that it is under attack, not that it is the attacker as it is highly unlikely that there is a world class pool of hacker talent residing here. Much of this attack activity is coming in from over seas.

Additionally, the crimes that are being committed locally from free wifi hotspots (or unprotected home networks) would get tracked to the host, not to the criminal, unless they were to conveniently leave some kind of digital calling card.

It is for this reason that Bill C-30 has no benefit in this situation.

It's a matter of just using common sense. I work and live in Burlington and our family does most of our shopping online and with debit & credit cards on PC's and smartphones and we have never had an issue in the 10 or so years we have been using these types of transactions.

If you don't want a virus - stay away from dirty parts of the internet and use protection.

It's as simple as grade 10 health class.

Rob D
said

Alison, the C-30 cybercrime bill will do nothing to stop criminals. They know how to 'spoof' IP and use onion proxy routing to circumvent tracing. I am in IT, it is easy. Knowing an IP means little and doesn't track it down to any one person. This bill will be used to give police further powers in non-cybercrime related matters. Just the whole way this bill was sold to the public, scare tactics and all, should be enough to make anyone highly suspicious of its intent.

Kris
said

Alison, have you read that legislation? We don't need our privacy removed, but people do need to be responsible with their use of the internet.

PG, Burlington IS a quiet affluent and upscale city in the GTA. These are the reasons it is also tops in Cybercrime, did you read the whole article?

DJ
said

here comes the fear :P

Bob T
said

The criminals are way out in front of the police . Bill C 30 needs some adjustments but its the tool that police need to go after these guys . Remember that "war driving " is still a really big issue . This is where the criminals tape into someone's wireless conection and use it to download porn .Secure your network at home with some thing stronger than your phone number.

Spare Me
said

@ annie o nimmus: Wrong. Statistically, Oakville is a wealthier city, by far. (Notice how it isn't on the list. Sorry to blow your opening theory.)

Drew from T.O
said

haha Burlington upscale! Who are you people kidding??? Its the second arm pit of Ontario. This report is no surprise move on.

Iam
said

"If you don't want a virus - stay away from dirty parts of the internet and use protection.
"

This is why the report doesn't surprise me in the least. I work in the IT industry, I lived in Burlington for 12 years. Protection? hahaha Good one.

It is a city full of itself, populated by the same. Every once in a while I pass through, sit in a SB or Williams, pull up a 'utility' and I am floored by the number of people who are sitting around with laptops with no security whatsoever and those who do, have no clue how to set it up properly.

Burlington sees the online porn industry as the perpetrators of all things criminal on the Internet, that's a given. People in Burlington are arrogant and ignorant where the 'outside' world comes into play, always has have been. It's one of the most 'wired' up cities around used by a population with no clue.

Good luck with that...

Mark in Wpg
said

@Alison: Tell me, how will C-30 prevent people from downloading a computer virus which in turn sends harvested data to a controller in China or Russia? Yeah, I didn't think so. What happens if the virus you've unintentionally downloaded takes part in a bot net and is used to attack someone? You get spied on by the government, the actual people responsible laugh all the way to the bank. C-30 will do nothing to slow cyber crime and it's supporters need to educate themselves about the realities of cyber crime.

sonofagun
said

First of all Burlington is not a GTA city, it is part of the Hamilton CMA. While it may have some affluence in certain areas it is nothing more than Hamilton's industrial suburb. Burlington is ripe for cybercrime but not because of it's affluence. It's more likely that Burlington just has alot more suckers than any other Canadian city and the criminals know that.

J.C.
said

I'm not an IT and I do not have the knowledge that they have, however I do use Symantec products to protect my PC.

James
said

If Bill C-30 does ANYTHING to help stop crime and is against criminals, then i'm for it. If you are not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about. Criminals have had it way too easy with weak laws and sentences in Canada for a long time.

George
said

Make sure you put a password on your wi-fi. It's amazing how many people don't have any security on it. OR, just use a wired ethernet connection which is even easier.

Spare Me
said

@ sonofagun: Actually, Burlington is part of the Regional Municipality of Halton, which includes Oakville, Milton, Halton Hills, and Georgetown. Halton is formally considered part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Burlington is not an industrial "suburb" of Hamilton, which is situated in the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth. Burlington's commercial and demographic ties, in fact, are closer to Oakville. Yes, Burlington is part of the Hamilton CMA...but the factual reality is that it officially rests within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Thanks.

GC in Ont
said

Obviously those of you who have nothing better to do than to spew cyber venom have never been to Burlington. All of these negative comments are pure fiction - Burlington is a great place to live and raise a family.

The story does contradict itself - if the people of Burlington are so "tech savvy" they would know to lock down their devices and ensure that their data and online activity is secure and protected.

scott
said

Please explain the point of arresting more cyber criminals only to have the canadaian legal system fall all over themselves in their blind rush to let them go. Bill C30 has got nothing to do with catching more criminals are we all know it. Considereing how the american government monitors every e-mail, cell phone call and internet login on the planet, why doesn't the canadian government simply ask them for the information that they want. The canadian government really needs to stop being so american.

paula
said

Technology and the Internet are much too powerful now. While I agree with stopping pedophiles I don't beleive this avenue will help.

As we have all seen with Mr.Toews debacle it is not going to happen.

Giving free reign into our privacy is not right and it's as simple as that. Like everything else it will have those who will use it to their advantage and the general public's disadvantage.