Brazil is one of the riskiest countries to do business in, according to BitSight Technology.

BitSight Security Ratings are a measurement of an organization’s security performance and range from 250 to 900, where higher ratings equate to lower risk. Much like credit ratings, BitSight Security Ratings are generated through the analysis of externally observable data such as compromised machines, vulnerabilities in important communication protocols and user behavior.

Taking a look at a random sample of companies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany, China and Brazil, BitSight found that companies based in Brazil have the lowest aggregate Security Rating, while companies in the UK, Germany and the United States have the highest.

Brazil and the United States have the poorest performance when it comes to preventing and mitigating machine compromise stemming from botnet infections; Germany and the UK perform the best in the fight against botnets. China, Brazil and Germany meanwhile have a higher percentage of poorly configured email security protocols, such as SPF and DKIM.

Major vulnerabilities in important communication protocols such as Heartbleed, POODLE and FREAK continue to affect organizations within all countries included in the study; and, peer-to-peer file sharing is common across all countries included in the study, except Germany.

 “Along with operational, financial and legal risk, cyber-risk should be a key consideration when extending operations globally. This includes understanding the risk associated with sharing sensitive data with global partners and vendors,” said Stephen Boyer, co-founder and CTO of BitSight. “Just as business practices and laws differ across countries, so do cybersecurity practices. When expanding globally, it is imperative to communicate best practices and establish a standard of security performance that can be implemented across the entire supply chain.”

Photo © Peace PhotoHunter