Hacking and weak cyber-security affects many sectors. Nowadays, it is considered a part a political weapon. The study aims to test the existence of a hacking pattern within the 27 European countries (EU). Metadata collected from various reliable sources were tested and considered to identify the core-periphery pattern. Diverse statistical techniques were used to alleviate and spot the detected anomaly within the collected data. A new index was devised to smooth the effect of data anomaly and produce comparable data. Location Quotient (LQ) was also derived to compare to the publicly available cybersecurity indices (International Telecommunication Union; ITU) to the newly devised index from the current study. Investigating the existing pattern of hacking in EU seems to follow a core-periphery concept, which is mastered by factors like geopolitical position, internet users, and economic level. The current study might offer new frontiers to support cybersecurity in threatened countries.
Keywords: European Union., Gross Domestic Product, core-periphery concept, cyber security, information and communications technology
