Nigeria Records 64% Data Breach Rise s In Q1, 2023

Surfshark, a Cybersecurity outfit, has disclosed that incidents of data breaches in Nigeria increased by a whooping 64% in the first quarter of 2023.

According go the company, 82,000 data breaches occurred in Nigeria between January and March 2023, up from the 50,000 recorded in the last quarter of 2022, making the country the 32nd most breach country in the globe between the period under the review.

Surfshark also disclosed that a total of 41.6 million data breaches globally in quarter one of the year, listing Russia as top on the table for garnering a sixth of all breaches within the same period.

Surfshark, which stated that there was a 49 per cent decrease in in global data breaches in the quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, named the United States as number in ranking while Taiwan and France came third and fourth respectively after extreme quarter-over-quarter growth.

According to the Global Data statistics released by Surfshark, quarter one of 2023 recorded 41.6M data leaks with Russia recording 6.6M, followed by the U.S with 5M, Taiwan with 3.9M and France with 3.2M and Spain with 3.2M. It added that Taiwan recorded its highest quarter-over-quarter increase, 21x, with the quarter’s figure and placing 3rd against its 26th place in the last quarter of 2022. One user account is said to have been breached every second in Q1’2023.

According to Surfshark’s Lead Researcher, Agneska Sablovskaja,

“…data breaches declined globally in the first quarter of 2023 if we compare it to the previous one.

“However, the fact that over 40 million accounts were breached in just a few months is still a cause for concern. Those whose data was compromised are at an increased risk of being targeted by cyber criminals as their personal information can be utilized for phishing attacks, fraud, identity theft, and other serious cybercrimes.”

Surfshark added that Europe recorded the most breaches in Q1 followed by Asia and North America. However, Europe was also the only region with a significant quarter-over-quarter increase in its statistics data breaches as the number almost doubled, rising from 9.9 million in Q4’2022 to 17.5 million in the first quarter of 2023. In particular, 2 of every 5 data breaches in the quarter under review originated from Europe with Russia accounting for 38 per cent. Within Europe, the biggest quarter-to-quarter rise in data breaches occurred in Czechia, with almost 9 times, Armenia, about 6 times, Switzerland, 6 times-

Surfshark says Asia, as the second most vulnerable region, accounted for about a fourth of the quarter’s global breaches with 10.6 million. With Saudi Arabia and Taiwan recording about 20 times more leaks in Q1, and South Korea’s figures increasing by as many as 12 times, the Asian-3 hold Asia’s diadem as the highest quarter-over-quarter increase overall all.

North America’s 5.3 million data breaches accounted for its 13% rise, all other regions made up less than 5% of the Q1, 2023’s total. However, of all the regions, with its total of 18.6 million data breaches in Q4’2022 scaled down to 557.6K in Q1’2023, Africa recorded a 33 times drop, making the continent as having the greatest quarter-over-quarter decrease.

According to Surfshark, Sherbank, Russia recorded 2.9 million accounts leaks, Weee!, United States, 1.1 million and Zurich Insurance, Switzerland, 756.7K. Surfshark added that the ten most breached countries of the world in Q1 of 2023 are Russia, the U.S., Taiwan, France, Spain, India, Czechia, South Korea, and Italy. It added that the highest growth in user victims was recorded in Taiwan, 21x, Saudi Arabia,19x, South Korea, 12x, Czechia, 9x, and Armenia, 7x.