Security experts are sounding the alert: the number of hacked email addresses around the world is significantly increasing at the start of 2024. And France is not spared from this trend, quite the contrary…
HAS As the 2024 Olympic Games approach, France is the target of a growing number of hacking attempts. Whether hospitals, banks, operators or public institutions, absolutely no one is spared! This results in significant data leaks, like those of 43 million job seekers, 33 million insured people and even thousands of CAF beneficiaries. Obviously, individuals suffer the consequences. Cybersecurity researchers from Surfshark have recorded all the times an email address has been hacked. They have thus amassed a large database, which makes it easy to observe developments in recent years. And that’s not reassuring at all…
Hacking of email addresses: a growing phenomenon
Since 2004, as many as 17 billion user accounts have been exposed worldwide, with 435 million incidents recorded at the start of the year, with some 81 million accounts compromised worldwide. And France is not a good student when it comes to cybersecurity. Since 2004, a total of 521.6 million accounts have been compromised in France, placing the country 4th in the world in terms of data breaches, behind China (1 billion), Russia (24 billion) and, big winners, the United States (30 billion). Countries whose surface area, and therefore the number of Internet users, is gigantic compared to that of our territory… Note that a single address can be counted several times.
Since the start of the year alone, France has recorded 4 million user accounts leaked online. This represents an increase of 96% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023! Afterwards, previous years have seen much larger peaks in offenses committed, with for example 17 million compromised accounts in Q3 2022, so this figure should be put into perspective. “Surfshark’s extensive monitoring of data leaks over two decades reveals an alarming digital reality: data leaks persist as an ongoing global threat.”says Lina Survila, spokesperson for Surfshark. “We urge everyone to remain vigilant, create strong passwords, avoid reusing them, and exercise caution when disclosing personal information online”. Internet users who have the slightest doubt can check on sites like Have I Been Pwned if their email address has been compromised or if they have been victims of a data leak.