Nigeria suffers 64% data breach in Q1, ranks 32 globally

A cybersecurity firm, Surfshark, has revealed that the incidences of data breaches in Nigeria increased by 64 per cent in Q1. Surfshark in the report released yesterday, said Nigeria recorded 82,000 cases of data breaches between January and March this year, up from 50,000 recorded in Q4 2022.

The 64 per cent data breach positioned Nigeria as the 32nd in the world on the list of countries most breached by hackers. The report revealed globally, data breaches declined in the first quarter of 2023, with a total of 41.6 million accounts breached, which is almost 50 per cent less than nearly 81 million recorded in Q4’2022. It stressed that at least one account is breached every second.

The report added that Russia ranked 1st, amounting to a sixth of all leaked accounts, followed by America (five million), Taiwan (3.9 million), France (3.2 million) and Spain (3.2 million).

A 49 per cent decrease in breached users worldwide is seen compared to Q4’2022. However, some countries experienced rapid growth, such as Taiwan (21 times), Saudi Arabia (19 times), South Korea (13 times), Czechia (nine times) and Armenia (seven times).

Europe was the most affected region by breaches in Q1’2023, followed by Asia and North America. Some of the biggest breaches by email count were Sberbank (Russia), with 2.9 million accounts leaked, Weee! (America) with 1.1 million, and Zurich Insurance (Switzerland) with 756,700.

Lead Researcher at Surfshark, Agneska Sablovskaja, said: “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 cybercriminals as their personal information can be utilised for phishing attacks, fraud, identity theft, and other serious cybercrimes.”