Data analysed from 144 countries and 100m PCs worldwide in July 2010 showed users are most likely to be hit by a malicious computer attack or virus in Turkey, Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The UK ranked 30th with a 1 in 63 chance of an online attack on any given day, the global average being 1 in 73.

Roger Thomson, spokesman for AVG, said: "Our research should serve as a wake-up call to people going abroad. If you are travelling without your computer and use a public machine or borrow a friend or colleagues, ensure that when accessing web-based services like e-mail, that you log out and close the browser when you have finished your session."

"If you are taking your laptop with you, ensure you have backed up your data and removed any sensitive information from your machine," Thomson advised.

AVG found the safest place to surf the web is in Africa, Japan or Taiwan. In terms of continents, South America was hailed the safest while North America was cited as the riskiest.

This story was first published by Computer Weekly