The number of data leaks in the world decreases, but their frequency is still high. According to 2024 results, Russia has occupied the second position among countries studying the number of incidents related to data compromise: Russian organizations account for 8.5% of the total number of registered cases.
In the leakage of personal data, the country has increased from seventh to Thursday. This is stated in the study of “information leakage in the world, 2023-2024”, prepared by expert infowatch and analytical center (EC).
The report noted that in large leaks, it is increasingly unable to set the amount of infringed data, which may indicate the underestimation of the actual scale of the problem.
According to the study, in 2024, 9,175 leaked information from state organizations and commerce was recorded in the world. This figure is less than 25.2% compared to 2023, when 12,265 such incidents were registered. The United States (36.1%of the total) is still the leader in the number of leaks, Russia (8.5%) is second, India (5.4%). Close the five kingdoms (3.8%) and Canada (2.9%). Despite the decrease in the total leakage, the Russian ratio on the global scale increased from 6.4% to 8.5%.
The reduction of leakage is explained by a number of factors. First, the effectiveness of harmful programs has decreased compared to the foundation of significant investment in information security, which has become a reaction to the growth of cyberspace network disease in 2022-2023. Second, the data of illegal data revenue has been saturated and the speed of the new leak has slowed down. Thirdly, the active actions of law enforcement agencies have led to the closing of some websites to sell data and arrest participants in large hackers.
This forces the administrators of the underground forums to limit the distribution of harmful programs to avoid growing attention from the authorities. Together, these factors lead to large -scale leakage: in 2024, the number of incidents with the database compromised with the volume of more than 1 million dossiers decreased by nearly 30%.
Regarding personal data leaks, Russia worsen its position, increasing from seventh to Thursday. The previous Infowatch report corrected the number of data leaks more than 30%.
Analysts also noted an alarming trend: in 48.3% of cases of personal data leaks by 2024, even the number of records that are infringed close to the right properly cannot be determined. This indicates that the actual scale of the problem may be much more serious than being reflected in statistics.
Data published on the number of violated records should be considered minimal. So far, there is no need to talk about a crack in the fight against a large leak – they continue and the amount of personal data flowing in the world annually reaches tens of billions of records. Personal information is not only used to cheat, but also to organize new attacks, which threatens both users and individual organizations. Under these conditions, it is important to continue strengthening data protection measures, Andrrei Arsentyev, head of analytical projects and special projects of Infowatch EC.