Global breaches down 76% in Q3, study finds

The number of accounts breached globally as part of cyber attacks fell 76% in the third quarter of 2023, according to a survey by Netherlands-based security firm Surfshark.

The report found 31 million accounts were breached in Q3, compared with 133 million in Q2. This means the third quarter saw 240 accounts breached every minute, versus 1030 the previous quarter.

According to the report, almost half (15.2 million) of leaked accounts in Q3 were of either American (8.1 million) or Russian (7.1 million) origin. France, China and Mexico followed, all with under two million leaked accounts.

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Though still claiming the top spot, America saw the biggest quarterly decrease in data breaches — from 50.2 million in Q2 to 8.1 million in Q3. Russia also saw a dip in leaked data, a 10x decrease from the previous quarter (34.8 million).

In fact, among the top five most breached countries, only China and Mexico saw an increase in leaked accounts.

All regions — except South America and Antarctica — saw significant quarterly decreases in data breaches. Europe was the most breached region — claiming one third of total breaches (10.9 million) — of which over half (65%) were Russian accounts. The UK witnessed 419k leaked online user accounts in Q3 2023.

While India did not make an appearance in top breached countries, at the end of last month it experienced the largest breach in India history.

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