Cybersecurity firm sounds alarm on data breaches after global account leaks almost double

The global data breach monitoring tool operated by cybersecurity company Surfshark indicates global data breaches have almost doubled.

Cybersecurity firm sounds alarm on data breaches after global account leaks almost double
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Junior Editor
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A global quarterly analysis conducted by cybersecurity company Surfshark has revealed global data breaches have almost doubled in Q3 2024 compared to Q2 2024.

Cybersecurity firm sounds alarm on data breaches after global account leaks almost double 222566

In an email to us, Surfshark explained that globally leaked accounts have almost doubled in Q3 2024 compared to Q2 2024, as the company's analysis indicated leaked accounts spiked from 215 million to 423 million. These statistics were acquired by Surfshark's global data breach monitoring tool, which also reveals the ten most breached companies in descending order. Those stats can be found below.

Moreover, Emilija Kucinskaite, Senior Researcher at Surfshark, provided a statement to us, saying that leaked account data still remains a "significant issue" and that zooming out on the data and looking at it over 20 years reveals an even more troubling statistic - there have been 68 billion data points exposed since 2004. Of those data points, 18 billion are email addresses, and on average, each leaked email address also comes with three additional leaked data points, such as passwords or phone numbers.

Cybersecurity firm sounds alarm on data breaches after global account leaks almost double 26631

"Leaked account data remains a significant issue, with breaches doubling in Q3 of 2024 compared to the previous quarter. An analysis of decades of breached data reveals a staggering 68 billion data points exposed since 2004, 18 billion of which are email addresses. On average, each email address is leaked with three additional data points, such as passwords or phone numbers. This exposure increases the risk of being targeted by cybercriminals," wrote Emilija Kucinskaite, Senior Researcher at Surfshark

As you can probably imagine, this data is extremely valuable to cybercriminals that will use to attempt scams, commit fraud, impersonation, etc.

Most breached countries in Q3 2024:

  • US (93.7M)
  • France (17.2M)
  • Russia (16.5M)
  • Germany (14.6M)
  • Japan (9.7M)
  • UK (8.3M)
  • China (7.9M)
  • Italy (7.8M)
  • India (7.4M)
  • Brazil (5.1M)

Highest breach density (per 1,000 residents) in Q3 2024:

  • US (276)
  • France (265)
  • Finland (224)
  • Germany (175)
  • Australia (175)
  • Taiwan (165)
  • Italy (133)
  • Singapore (127)
  • UK (123)
  • Russia (114)
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Junior Editor

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Jak joined the TweakTown team in 2017 and has since reviewed 100s of new tech products and kept us informed daily on the latest science, space, and artificial intelligence news. Jak's love for science, space, and technology, and, more specifically, PC gaming, began at 10 years old. It was the day his dad showed him how to play Age of Empires on an old Compaq PC. Ever since that day, Jak fell in love with games and the progression of the technology industry in all its forms.

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