If any security practitioners in rest of the world need pointers on how to more effectively combat the malware scourge, they ought to visit Scandinavia, where Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark place first through fourth in world rankings of malware-free computers.

Like so many things in the northern lands, experts say it's cooperation – and smarts – that make the difference.

"Norway and Sweden and Finland, first of all, have CERTs that are competent," said Snorre Fagerland, Principal Security Researcher at Symantec Network Protection Products in Norway. And unlike in the U.S., Fagerland says, the 5.2 million citizens of Norway generally trust their government to do the right thing, so cooperation between public and private sectors is not so difficult.

"They have also by and large good working relationships both with the various security vendors but also with the business side of things – banks and large corporations throughout the country," Fagerland added.

Stateside, it's a different matter.

American security professionals often express alarm over letting the feds know about internal investigations. They list off a parade of horribles. FBI agents, they say, could easily compromise an internal investigation by getting in the way of experts who need to chase down intruders as quickly as possible. Reporters, some insist, could obtain corporate secrets by demanding details of intrusions under the Freedom of Information Act.

The simple act of telling others about a break-in could lead to bad publicity, while lawyers could bring nuisance suits against companies that were hacked in hopes of forcing a settlement.

Taken together, it means few divulge meaningful information.

Those fears may be overblown.

"I've never seen anyone successfully sued for sharing attack information," according to Cyber law and security expert Mark Rasch. Lawsuits and bad publicity he said, come from actual breeches and real damages – exactly the things companies could reduce if they spent more time collaborating and sharing details in the first place.

So yes. Americans should trust and cooperate more as Scandinavians do, Rasch noted.

Even so, the Scandinavians have a competitive advantage.

"As societies and a culture, they are rule followers," Rasch said. "Plus, these are small countries, so everyone knows each other."

There are other, more subtle forces that work to Scandinavia's favor. Take phishing for example. Any successful phishing practitioner needs to know what will attract a target, but the precise words to use to make it believable, too.

Cyber criminals have an ocean of examples to examine to craft their pitch. But Norwegian? Finnish? The population of targeted speakers is small, and the effort needed to learn the languages is significant says Bjorn Watne, chief security officer at Norway's venerable Storebrand insurance company.

"The few times they try to translate into Norwegian or Swedish they fail," Watne said.

So, is the U.S. doomed to always be a follower of those squared-away Scandinavians? Not necessarily.

For one thing, Rasch said, the vast majority of attacks succeed because someone got sloppy. The U.S., he said, can improve on that score.

"You don't have to have state-of-the-art security," according to Rasch. "You just need good hygiene."

And it's not as though the Nordic nations can always rest on their laurels, since infection rates still hover around 20 percent in all four countries. Likewise, the countries' outsized GDPs - oil-rich Norway, in particular – make tempting targets for criminals looking for a quick hit.

Even the language barrier is proving to be more porous than it once was. Norwegian online translation companies, for instance, have reported a jump in translations for phishy-sounding phrases like "win a free iPhone" and the like lately, Watne said.

In the end, a combination of good habits and innovation will win. And on that score, the U.S. has reason to hope. After all, some of the best ideas come from people to whom rule following isn’t second nature.

"We are much more anarchic in the United States," Rasch says. "That can be a good thing."