Surfshark, a cybersecurity company, has positioned Malaysia as the eighth most breached country in Q3 2023, reporting 494,699 leaked accounts.
The Star reports that according to the company’s statement, the breach rate surged by 144% compared to Q2 2023, revealing that approximately four Malaysian user accounts were compromised every minute during Q3 2023.
Additionally, Malaysia ranks fifth in breach density, with about 5,436 accounts breached daily. Surfshark defines breach density as the total breach number divided by the country’s population, providing insight into the likelihood of experiencing a data breach in different countries.
The study, released in November, scrutinises global data breaches from July to September across 200 countries and territories. Surfshark gathered data from 29,000 publicly available databases and aggregated email addresses through independent partners.
A data breach, as defined by Surfshark, involves an intruder copying and leaking user data, including names, usernames, email addresses, and passwords. Globally, the study identified 31.5 million breached accounts, with the United States leading at 8.1 million, followed by Russia (7.1 million), France (1.6 million), China (1.4 million), and Mexico (1.2 million).
Despite an overall decrease in data breach counts in Q3 2023, Surfshark’s lead researcher, Agneska Sablovskaja, stressed that over 240 online accounts were compromised globally every minute.
She recommended a vigilant approach, advocating for maintaining accounts only on actively used platforms and implementing two-factor authentication for enhanced security.
In the event of an account breach, Surfshark advises users to change passwords, contact their banks if credit card details are compromised, scan devices for malware, and request the deletion of leaked accounts if they are no longer in use.
