MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th June, 2021) The United States remains unmatched as a superpower in global cyberspace, the UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), has found.
The IISS experts ranked countries based on the whole range of capabilities of an individual state, from development of the digital economy to competition in the field of cyber intelligence. The 182-page report, dubbed "Cyber Capabilities and National Power" divides the countries into three tiers, with the United States topping the list.
"The US remains the most cyber-capable state. Since the mid-1990s its leaders have provided clear political direction for the pursuit of national cyber power: in that time it has invested heavily in developing relevant civilian and military capabilities, gained extensive operational experience and developed the world's strongest digital-industrial base. The US performs strongly across all categories of the methodology and is alone in Tier One," the report read.
The second tier of seven countries includes Australia, Canada, China, France, Israel, Russia and the United Kingdom, while India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, North Korea, Iran, and Vietnam are placed in the third.
The report also analyzed China's current position in cyberspace, which, according to the IISS researchers, would be able to catch up with the United States in no sooner than a decade.
"On every measure, the development of skills for cyber security in China is in a worse position than it is in many other countries," Greg Austin, the IISS expert in cyberspace, told the Financial Times, adding that China's digital advances were somewhat "exaggerated."
The London-based think tank suggested that Beijing's cyber strengths were being undermined by its fragile security and poor intelligence analysis.
