A total of 108.9 million accounts were breached in the third quarter of 2022, a 70% increase compared to the previous quarter.
The top five countries and regions most affected by data breaches in Q3 2022 were Russia, France, Indonesia, the US and Spain. While Russia had the most breaches overall (22.3 million), France had the highest breach density, averaging 212 leaked accounts per 1000 people.
The figures come from a new study by cybersecurity company Surfshark, which said the staggering increase in breached users worldwide comes after a comparatively timid growth in the year's first half.
"It's concerning to see data breaches rising again after a comparatively timid first half of the year, putting a massive 108.9M internet users at risk," said Agneska Sablovskaja, lead researcher at Surfshark.
"Global user breaches are 70% higher this quarter than the last. Every second in the past three months, 14 accounts were leaked – all of them coming from different countries."
While Russia led in terms of data breaches in each quarter of 2022 so far, throughout the last 10 years, the United States remained the single most breached country.
The situation only shifted at the start of 2022 when the number of breached Russian accounts rose by 136% MoM (Month on Month) since the end of February, aligning with Ukraine's invasion.
Belarus appeared in 19th position with 539,000 reported breaches and a 4x growth from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, Ukraine experienced a 14% drop in breached users quarter-over-quarter, which took them to the 17th position globally.
From a regulatory standpoint, the new data suggests that in Indonesia, breached user count has grown by a striking 1370% in the last quarter, which alongside previous incidents, has pushed the parliament to ratify the Personal Data Protection Act.
For more data about the most impactful data breaches in Q3 2022, the Surfshark report is available at this link.
Its publication comes weeks after several data breaches were revealed in Australia, the largest of which affected nearly 2.1 million Australians.