The top 5 countries with the largest number of data breaches account for more than half of all breaches of 2021, according to a new report. These countries are:
- The United States of America (212.4M).
- Iran (156.1M).
- India (86.6M).
- Russia (27M).
- France (24.6M).
This year, just like that last, the country that topped the data breach charts was the US, with 212.4M cases, according to cybersecurity firm Surfshark.
Rise In Breaches Year Over Year Dominated By Middle East
While the US citizens were breached a total of 212.4M times (a 22% increase compared to 2020), the numbers weren’t surprising considering the number of data breaches that happened this past year, said the report.
However, the Middle East particularly stood out among the countries that grew the most breach-wise.
Leaked data suggests that more than 150 million Iranian accounts (a 10842% rise from 2020) were compromised during the 2021 Raychat.io breach. The breach pushed Iran to a number two spot because the Raychat app is one of the most popular messaging platforms in the country. However, the Raychat breach may only be a start to Iran’s new problems. 2021 has also seen an intensification of the cyberwar between Israel and Iran as it reached the civilian level, which may result in an increased frequency of data breaches across the nation in the upcoming years.
Percentage-wise, Sudan came out with the second-highest rise in breaches users of 9.2M cases this year compared to 214.6K in 2020 (a 4178% increase). The United Arab Emirates were third with 515% (from 1.5M in 2020 to 9M in 2021), followed by Iraq with a 456% increase year over year.
India also came up fifth on the growth list this year with a 352% increase from 2020. It netted a total of 86.6M user accounts stolen over 9 big data breaches in 2021, including Domino’s India & Air India cases, said the report.
Image credit: Surfshark
