Data breach: France, 4th country most affected by intrusions in the first quarter

France is facing a sharp rise in the number of users affected by data breaches, after exceeding 700,000 victims in the first three months of the year.

Worldwide, some 18 million people were hacked and suffered a data breach in the first quarter of 2022, according to research by cybersecurity specialist and VPN provider Surfshark. If this figure is down (-58%) compared to the previous quarter, geopolitics seems to have its consequences on certain countries. In France, breached accounts have seriously increased between the months of January and March.

Russia, the United States and Poland, countries most affected by data breaches

In this first quarter, the country most affected in terms of breached accounts is none other than Russia. More than 3.5 million Internet users were affected over the period. Probably a sign that the war in Ukraine was not without consequences, in March, that is to say the month following the invasion, Surfshark recorded a 136% increase in Russian accounts victims of a data breach, compared to February.

Behind Russia, we find in order the United States and Poland to complete the podium of the countries having suffered the most data breaches during the first quarter. Behind France, India, Turkey, Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Germany complete the top 10. While the USA is experiencing a decline (-47%), Poland has experienced a veritable explosion of number of breached accounts (+514%), increasing from 156,550 in Q4 2021 to 961,030 in Q1 2022. Poles were hit hard by a wave of credit card phishing over the phone at the beginning of the year. And at the same time, the Polish government admitted to using the infamous Pegasus spyware.

France, for its part, therefore ranks fourth, with a 19% increase in accounts breached compared to the last quarter of 2021. From 607,160 victims, France rose to 721,170 victims over the first three months of the year 2022.

Data breaches still significant, despite loss of speed

Regarding Russia in particular, there is no formal proof linking the increase in breached accounts in the country (+11% in Q1 2022) to the invasion of Ukraine, but the timing obviously raises questions, all the more that the Anonymous had quickly declared war on the country of the Tsars, at the end of February.

Ukraine, precisely, is only in fifteenth position in the ranking of countries victims of the greatest number of data breaches, with 207,500 victims during the first quarter of 2022, against 633,720 for the previous one, a decrease of 67. %. Before the start of the year, however, Ukraine was the Eastern European country with the highest number of breach victims, and the 8^and in the world.

As Aleksandr Valentij points out, ” data breaches remain one of the most common types of cybercrime “, even if they have been losing momentum in recent months. Surfshark’s information systems security manager recalls that leaked emails, passwords, phone numbers and other sensitive data still sell well on the dark web, to then help lead ” phishing, ransomware or even identity theft attacks “.

^{_{Source: Surfshark}}