Over 5 billion accounts breached in 2024, China emerges as top target
The number of compromised accounts in 2024 surged eightfold compared to the previous year, with nearly half of all breaches concentrated in just three countries.
Image by Cybernews
The number of compromised accounts in 2024 surged eightfold compared to the previous year, with nearly half of all breaches concentrated in just three countries.
Over five billion accounts were breached last year, a “staggering” increase from 730 million in 2023, according to researchers from cybersecurity firm Surfshark. It means that nearly 180 accounts were compromised every second, they said.
The surge can in part be attributed to a single data breach in 2024, which involved a collection of over three billion unique email addresses tracked to an underground crime forum in September.
While the leak compiled data from previous breaches, duplicates were removed, according to Surfshark.
The firm’s researchers found that approximately 790 million of the breached accounts were Russian, 310 million were American, 160 million were Chinese, 110 million were German, and 100 million were French, among others.
More from Cybernews
Sainsbury’s installs more facial rec tech in stores: Should shoppers be worried?
"Phantom squatting” uses AI hallucinated domains for cyber attacks
What they’re doing to gamers is a robbery in broad daylight
Irish parliament expands Microsoft use, despite the EU’s efforts to ditch it
Can government AI actually scrub UAP footage from the internet?
The EU and Apple CEO Tim Cook held "constructive" talks after their Siri AI dispute in Europe
“This massive email leak provides cybercriminals and phishing scammers with a vast pool of potential targets. However, the hacker behind the leak claimed that none of these emails were obtained through private leaks – all this information was already publicly available,” Surfshark said.
Another major leak, discovered in February 2024, affected over 120 million individuals and originated from DemandScience, a B2B demand generation company. The firm collects data including full names, physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, job titles, and social media links.
“Such information is essential for digital marketers and advertisers to create detailed consumer profiles that drive lead generation and targeted marketing strategies,” Surfshark said.
The vast majority – 33 million – of the compromised accounts in this breach were American, followed by 2.4 million British, 1.4 million Canadian, and 1.2 million Australian, among others.
Data breach hotspots
Of all the breached accounts last year, 46% were concentrated in just three countries: China, Russia, and the US. China soared to the top of the rankings in 2024 from its 12th position a year earlier.
“In 2023, the US and Russia dominated the data breach landscape, comprising nearly 80% of all breached accounts. However, by 2024, China also emerged as a key player in global data breaches,” Surfshark said.
China and Russia each accounted for about 17% of all breached accounts, while the US contributed 12% to the global total. Nearly 1,800 accounts were breached every minute in China, with Russia close behind at over 1,700 per minute. US-linked accounts experienced 1,300 breaches per minute.
However, when it comes to data breach density – which could indicate that residents face a greater risk of experiencing a data breach – Europe led the charge. While Russia topped the list with nearly 6,400 breached accounts per 1,000 people, France was second with 2,300 – ahead of the US with over 2,000.
Of 15 countries with over one million people where individuals faced an average of more than one breached account per person, 70% were in Europe, Surfshark found. The Central European nation of Czechia, population 11 million, ranked fourth globally, followed by Australia, Germany, Latvia, and the Netherlands.