According to a Surfshark study, since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March, the number of Russian accounts compromised has increased by 136% compared to February. At the same time, the number of breaches in Ukraine was 67% lower than in the pre-war quarter.
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These numbers are likely driven by the fact that the hacking group Anonymous announced at the start of the conflict that it would target Russia. The United States ranks second, followed by Poland, France, and India. The five countries with the most data breaches accounted for half of all breaches in the first quarter of 2022. Russians alone account for nearly one-fifth of all victims worldwide.
“Although data breaches have decreased over the past few months, it remains one of the most common types of cybercrime,” said Surfshark chief information security officer Aleksandr Valentijn.
“Leaked emails, passwords, phone numbers, and even more sensitive pools of data are often sold on the dark web for later use in phishing attacks, ransomware, and even identity theft. As can be seen from our latest data, some countries are more vulnerable to this condition than others over the past few months.”
Moreover, the U.S. showed a positive downward trend in data breaches for the second quarter in a row, with nearly 50% fewer users affected in 2022 than the previous quarter, with approximately 2.5 million users compromised.
Furthermore, Poland jumped to third place thanks to a 514% surge in breaches this year. The country’s media reported a wave of phone phishing attacks at the beginning of the year in which hackers tried to lure credit card details in fraudulent ways.
