The United States ranked first among all the countries in the world in terms of breached accounts, Surfshark’s study shows. A total of 214.4M American users have lost their data during one or several breaches that happened this year, 22% more than in 2020.
Hackmageddon’s data suggests that at least 24 of the biggest data breaches of 2021 happened in the U.S, including Nitro PDF, as well as Parkmobile, T-Mobile and many others. Consequently, The U.S. shows extremely high breach numbers for two consecutive years, showing a jump from 174.4M to 212.4M breached accounts.
Analysis of Surfshark Alert’s database determined that 2021 was slightly worse than the last in terms of data breach cases. In the first 11 months of 2021, 952.8M accounts were breached, meaning that 1 out of 5 people were affected globally. In contrast, 921.8M breaches happened in 2020 during the same period, signaling a 3.4% growth and 31M more compromised internet users.
“The growth in breached users is alarming considering the reputational and financial damage that can be done once a person’s private data is stolen or leaked. Criminals can use it in various illegal schemes, such as phishing emails, fake bank calls, and even identity theft,”- explains Vytautas Kaziukonis, Chief Executive Officer of Surfshark. “Unfortunately, this trend isn’t going anywhere. Therefore, all internet users should educate themselves on online privacy and take preventive measures to protect themselves.”
Surfshark’s study highlights that the top five countries with the largest number of data breaches account for more than half of all leaks of 2021. Iran, which came in second place, had striking 156.M breached users, followed by India (86.6M), Russia (27M), and France (24.6M).
The Middle East particularly stood out among the countries that grew the most breach-wise. Iran had the highest year-on-year growth of 10842% (from 1.4M to 156.1M), primarily due to the 2021 Raychat.io breach, one of the country’s most popular messaging apps. Sudan came second with a 4178% increase, while The United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and India rounded off the top five growth-wise.
The top 20 most breached countries of this year in ascending order are: The U.S., Iran, India, Russia, France, UK, Iraq, South Korea, China, Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Montenegro, Turkey. The full analysis and data can be found in the blog post here: https://surfshark.com/blog/data-breach-statistics-by-country-in-2021
