A listing of United States cities ranking how risky they are for Internet crime is out. Not a single Connecticut city is among the 50 riskiest cities compiled by Sperling's BestPlaces and Symantec, maker of Norton computer security products. That may be good news or bad news, depending on your point of view.

As many people know, Internet crime comes in many stripes. It can involve fraud, sexual offenses and domestic violence in the form of online harassment. Connecticut has its share of such activity and governments are not shy about prosecuting suspected offenders. Those facing such charges owe it to themselves to have an experienced attorney working for them.

So, why does no Connecticut city make it onto the 2011 list of riskiest online cities? Well, it would seem that we don't have the prevalence of technology required. According to the folks at Sperling and Symantec, the rankings are based on the level of specific risk factors. These include, the number of personal computers and smartphones in a given city, numbers of online shoppers, social media networking activity and the availability of unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots.

Bert Sperling, the lead researcher for the list, says he came up with the list by comparing those lifestyle factors with Symantec data about known cybercrimes that have been recorded. Based on the assessment Washington, D.C., tops the list for highest cybercrime risk for 2011. Seattle is number two, giving up its top spot on the 2010 list. San Francisco comes in third. Detroit comes in at 50.

In a related note, the report says that cybercrime is on the rise. Sperling says this reflects the continuing boom in sales of smartphones, tablet computers, laptops and social networking activity. And that doesn't matter where one lives. The National White Collar Crime Center says that in the past year, cyber attacks are up, making it risky for online users everywhere.

To stay safe, Norton advises:

1. Take care using unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots.

2. Use complex, unique passwords for each site.

3. Keep security software up to date.

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Seattle no longer riskiest city for cybercrime," Aubrey Cohen, Feb.15, 2012