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Microsoft: Internet users will double to 4 billion worldwide by 2020

You might think that everyone uses the Internet, but you would be wrong. That's according to a recent report from Microsoft that examines the current state of cybersecurity in the world. Microsoft claims that the number of Internet users will double to about four billion by the year 2020.

The report says that the number of Internet users will grow substantially in China, India and the continent of Africa in the next seven years. Microsoft adds:

This change, coupled with a consistently evolving cybersecurity threat landscape will require governments around the world to look more broadly than ever before to understand the impact of the decisions that are being made today.

The report, titled "Measuring the Impact of Policy on Global Cybersecurity,” looks at how a number of different factors could affect cybersecurity for different countries in the world. Those factors include education, law enforcement, public policies and more. Microsoft says that its results show that the countries that have the lowest amount of malware infection rates had more PCs, a higher rate of health care, more stable governments and better broadband Internet access.

By contrast, countries with the highest malware infection rates had lower literacy among their populace, along with more crime and a lower amount of broadband Internet access. Microsoft said, "On average, these countries or regions had three times more malware than the highest performing countries, an average piracy rate of 68 percent and fewer than 10 percent of these countries had signed international treaties or codes of conduct on cybercrime."

Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft

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