Global data breach stats
This page contains publicly available information about personal data that’s been copied, transmitted, viewed, and stolen from data holders, or otherwise illegally used since 2004.
16,265,021,232
Total number of breached accounts
Most accounts breached
Fewest accounts breached
What you need to know about the numbers
This data is updated periodically, so make sure to check the numbers once in a while if you quote them. That said, there are two important things you should know about these numbers:
- Most people use the same email for different accounts when registering online. That’s why a single email or account can be breached several times in different cases and some numbers may seem so high (like 16.3B total breached accounts).
- 29.6% of the total breached accounts did not contain information about a person’s country of residence. So the numbers of country-specific breaches are actually much higher than you see below.
Accounts get breached more than once
Since 2004, a total of 16.3B accounts have been breached and approximately 5.6B of them have unique email addresses. This means that on a global scale:
- A single email address is breached 3 times on average.
- 72 unique email addresses are breached per 100 people.
- 209 accounts are breached per 100 people on average.
Countries with the highest number of breached accounts since 2004
Countries with a population of less than 1M people are not included
1The U.S.
2Russia
3China
4France
5Germany
American and Russian accounts are breached way more often than in other countries. Cases in these two countries make up for 30.1% of the total breaches worldwide:
- The U.S. holds the highest number of breached accounts in the world. This makes up 16.1% of all breached email addresses globally. Leaked Russian email accounts make up a number - 14.0% of the total global breaches.
- Russia has the highest number of breached accounts per 100 inhabitants. Statistically, the email address of every Russian account was breached around 16 times. This number is 7.5 times higher than the global average (209 breached accounts per 100 people).
Comparing breach numbers in 2022'Q4 and 2022'Q3
Countries with a population of less than 1M people are not included
1South Sudan
2Turkey
3North Korea
1Benin
2Zambia
3Indonesia
TOP 10 countries by leaked data points
Russia
China
France
Brazil
India
U.K.
Germany
Italy
Canada
Number of data points lost per capita
American and Russian accounts are exposed to cyber risks the most. The U.S. ranks 1st according to the number of data points leaked per capita, where a single person has lost 30 data points on average to breaches since 2004. Russia comes second with 26 data points per person. France ranks third with 20 data points per capita.
Number of data points leaked per account
A total of 55.2B data points have been exposed (16.3B of them have been email addresses) since 2004. On average, each email address is leaked with 2.4 additional data points.
Vietnamese, Iraqi, and Guatemalan accounts are breached with the most data points
Compromised Vietnamese email addresses have lost 4.2 data points on average. Together with their email, Vietnamese users lost 77.6% more data points to breaches than the global average. Iraqi and Guatemalan emails are breached with an average of 4.0 additional data points. This may suggest that users from these countries tend to fill in online forms more meticulously, putting more of their data in danger to be breached.
How data breaches compare across regions and countries
Countries with a population of less than 1M people are excluded when selecting the country with the most/fewest breaches.
Total breached accounts | Breached accounts per 100 people | Data points per breached account | No. of passwords leaked per 100 breached accounts |
Global | |||
Total breached accounts 16,265,021,232 | Breached accounts per 100 people 209 | Data points per breached account 2.4 | No. of passwords leaked per 100 breached accounts 85 |
Total breached accounts 4,854,550,203 | Breached accounts per 100 people 648 | Data points per breached account 2.1 | No. of passwords leaked per 100 breached accounts 108 |
Region with most breaches | |||
Eastern Europe | |||
Total breached accounts 2,663,943,989 | Breached accounts per 100 people 909 | Data points per breached account 1.7 | No. of passwords leaked per 100 breached accounts 123 |
Region with least breaches | |||
Northern Europe | |||
Total breached accounts 448,176,647 | Breached accounts per 100 people 422 | Data points per breached account 3.0 | No. of passwords leaked per 100 breached accounts 78 |
Country with most breaches | |||
Russia | |||
Total breached accounts 2,275,104,524 | Breached accounts per 100 people 1,559 | Data points per breached account 1.6 | No. of passwords leaked per 100 breached accounts 128 |
Country with least breaches | |||
Kosovo | |||
Total breached accounts 113,581 | Breached accounts per 100 people 6 | Data points per breached account 3.3 | No. of passwords leaked per 100 breached accounts 65 |
People from Europe are 3 times more likely to suffer account data leaks than the global population
Breaches in Europe account for 29.8% of the total global breaches. To put this into perspective, a single person from Europe has gotten their online account details leaked around 6 times since 2004. However, not all the countries are exposed to cyber risks on the same level. Russia is the most targeted country, with 5 out of 10 breaches in Europe happening there.
Breached accounts’ QoQ analysis (2020-present)
3.0B accounts have been breached since the start of 2020
This accounts for 18.5% of the total global breaches that have happened since 2004. In turn, this has affected 12 out of 100 people globally each year.
Breach rates have been on the decline compared to the last quarter
In 2022'Q4, 622 accounts were being breached every minute. In 2023'Q1, however, breach rates are 56.7% lower, with 270 accounts being leaked every 60 seconds.
Quarter with the highest number of breaches over the last year
2022'Q3 had the most data breaches over the last year. 117.8M accounts were breached in total, which means that:
- 35.1 % more quarterly breaches occurred than the yearly average (87.2M).
- 2 out of 100 people in the world suffered account breaches in 2022'Q3.
Quarter with the lowest number of breaches over the last year
2022'Q2 had the fewest data breaches over the last year. 65.2M accounts were breached, which is:
- −25.2 % fewer quarterly breaches than the yearly average (87.2M).
- 1.8 times fewer than in 2022'Q3, the quarter with the highest number of breaches over the last year.
Countries affected by breaches most each quarter
Countries with a population of less than 1M people are not included