Surfshark: Europe at the forefront of digital security

All the top countries in cybersecurity are in Europe. The UK has lost ground in cybersecurity, according to Surfshark, which says advances in Artificial Intelligence are essential. The data comes from Surfshark’s Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index 2025. The company looked at 121 countries, using sources including open data from the United Nations and the World Bank to assess five pillars: internet quality, internet accessibility, digital security, digital infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence.

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While it is positive that European countries are leading the way in digital security, the findings show that the UK is lagging behind as these countries have made significant improvements and the gap could widen further in the coming year. In the Index, digital security is defined as the level of safety people experience online, reflecting a country’s readiness to combat cybercrime and its commitment to protecting online privacy.

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The findings reveal that all of the countries at the top of the digital security rankings are in Europe. Estonia, Germany, France and Finland also feature in the top ten countries leading the rankings in terms of digital sovereignty, with Finland taking first place for maintaining the best digital quality of life in the world. Emilija Kucinskaite, Senior Researcher at Surfshark, noted that Finland, like many other European countries, uses the GDPR, which offers the highest standard of data protection.

However, the UK presents a different story. While it scored highly in data protection, the cybersecurity pillar ranked 39th globally, indicating significant gaps and revealing signs of a sharp decline since 2024, when its cybersecurity capabilities were ranked 6th. The UK has also lost ground in the global DQL index, now ranking 18th, behind countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and South Korea.

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While this shift may sound alarming, Kucinskaite insists that the data needs to be put into context, stating that the UK is improving across the board, but not at the same rate as other countries that have made more significant progress. She warns that if the UK’s rate of improvement lags behind other countries, its scores could fall further next year. From a global perspective, it is interesting to note that Europe has the smallest gap in cybersecurity scores.