India ranked 10th globally in data breach rankings in Q3 2023: Study

India was the 10th most breached country globally in Q3 2023, with 369,000 leaked accounts, according to a cybersecurity report by Surfshark. It remained one of the most breached countries in the world for the third quarter in a row in 2023, despite a decrease in the number of leaked accounts.

India got the third position in Asia for the number of leaked accounts in the third quarter (after China and Malaysia).

The report found that globally, a total of 31.5 million accounts were breached, with the US ranking first and amounting to 26 per cent of all breaches from July through September. Russia takes second place, while France is third, followed by China and Mexico.

Based on the latest data from Surfshark, India's ranking for data breaches in Q3 2023 has indeed improved compared to Q2 2023. India moved from 7th place to 10th place globally, with a significant 74 per cent decrease in the breach rate. This translates to a reduction from 1.4 million leaked accounts in Q2 to 369,000 leaked accounts in Q3.

“The third quarter of 2023 shows a general decrease in data breach count. Yet every minute, over 240 online accounts were compromised globally, exposing sensitive information to malicious actors,” said Agneska Sablovskaja, Lead Researcher at Surfshark. “We recommend a vigilant approach by maintaining accounts only on actively used platforms and implementing two-factor authentication for enhanced security.”

In Q3 2023, Europe's data breaches decreased four times, dropping from 48.1 million in Q2 2023 to 10.9 million in Q3 2023. To put this into perspective, 1 in 2.9 accounts breached in Q3 2023 originated from Europe, with 65 per cent of these being Russian.

As per the study, an additional 12 per cent of the accounts originated from Asia (3.8M). All other regions comprised less than 8 per cent of the quarter’s total, and almost 15 per cent remain unknown. Out of all regions, Oceania saw the greatest quarter-over-quarter decrease — 91 per cent, bringing its total of 3.3 million leaked accounts in Q2 2023 down to 289.6k in Q3 2023.

In descending order, the ten most breached countries of Q3 2023 were the US, Russia, France, China, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Malaysia, the UK, and India.

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