Israel, Sweden and Finland are the world leaders in cyber defense ahead of the US, Australia, UK, China and Germany, says a study released by McAfee.

Despite being a major player in the global economy, India has faired low down the order in terms of cyber-readiness and defense as compared to other countries around the globe.

This was revealed in a cyber security report released by McAfee and conducted by Security and Defense Agenda (SDA), an independent defense and security think tank based in Brussels.

India has been on the receiving end of cyber strikes in recent times. A couple of months back, the computer systems of the ministries of home and external affairs, National Security Council and other government departments were attacked in a synchronized manner.

In July last year, hackers targeted the Delhi airport, which resulted in check-in counters of all airlines becoming non-operational for many hours. Websites of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, BSNL and telecom regulator TRAI were also attacked.

The report found that 57 percent of global security experts believe that an arms race is taking place in cyber space; with 36 percent stating that cyber-security is more important than missile defense.

Israel, Sweden and Finland were ranked as the world leaders in cyber defense ahead of the United States, Australia, UK, China and Germany. A total of 23 countries were ranked in the report.

Forty three percent identified damage or disruption to critical infrastructure as the greatest single threat posed by cyber-attacks with wide economic consequences while 45 percent of respondents said that cyber-security is as important as border security.

The SDA had in-depth interviews with some 80 world-leading policy-makers and cyber-security experts in government, business and academia in 27 countries and anonymously surveyed 250 world leaders in 35 countries.

Real-time sharing of global intelligence was a core recommendation of the report, citing the building of trust between industry stakeholders by setting up bodies to share information and best practices, like the Common Assurance Maturity Model (CAMM) and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).

“The core problem is that the cyber criminal has greater agility, given large funding streams and no legal boundaries to sharing information, and can thus choreograph well-orchestrated attacks into systems,” said Phyllis Schneck, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Global Public Sector, McAfee. “Until we can pool our data and equip our people and machines with intelligence, we are playing chess with only half the pieces.”

Experts interviewed also agreed that developments like smart phones and cloud computing mean we are seeing a whole new set of problems linked to inter-connectivity and sovereignty that require new regulations and new thinking.