Latest news with #databreaches
Zawya
14-05-2025
- Zawya
10% of Nigerians affected by data breaches since 2004 — Report
At least 10 out of every 100 Nigerians have fallen victim to data breaches since 2004, according to a new report by Surfshark, raising serious concerns about the country's long-standing vulnerability to cybercrimes. The research is based on data gathered from 29,000 publicly available databases. Each unique breached email address is treated as a separate user account, and breaches often include additional personal data such as passwords, phone numbers, IP addresses, and postal codes. Surfshark's report before analysis, and countries with populations under 1 million were excluded from the study. Findings of the report revealed that a staggering 23.2 million Nigerian user accounts have been compromised in the past two decades, an alarming figure in a country with an estimated population of over 230 million. This includes 7.3 million unique email addresses and 13.1 million passwords. 'Cyberattacks remain persistent and growing threats globally, and Nigeria is no exception,' Surfshark stated in its analysis. Despite a significant 85 percent drop in new data breaches in the first quarter of 2023 (falling from the previous quarter's numbers), Nigeria still recorded over 110,000 breached accounts during the period. This places the country 34th worldwide in total breach volume. 'Even with the recent decline, the scale and depth of data breaches remain troubling,' it added. According to the report, 56 percent of Nigerians are affected by breaches are at the highest risk of identity theft, accounting for the historic access to their online accounts. In 2023 alone, an estimated one Nigerian account was breached into every five minutes, Surfshark noted. The global picture also shows a dramatic shift: the number of breached accounts dropped 93 percent year-on-year—from nearly 94 million in Q1 2022 to just 6.3 million in Q1 2023. Countries with the highest number of breached users include the United States (166 million), Russia (144.5 million), and India (42.4 million). However, when adjusted for population, South Korea, Israel, and Slovenia reported the highest breach density, with South Sudan counting a mere 0.01 breached accounts per 1,000 residents. Copyright © 2022 Nigerian Tribune Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
The Independent
07-05-2025
- The Independent
Over 19 billion passwords have been leaked in security ‘crisis' – here's how to check if yours is vulnerable
Over 19 billion passwords were leaked in the last year alone amid what experts are calling a cybersecurity 'crisis.' But there are ways to protect yourself. A new study by Cybernews examined more than 200 data breaches between April 2024 and 2025, and found that of the 19,030,305,929 newly exposed passwords, 94 percent of them were reused or duplicated – in some cases by different users entirely. 'We're facing a widespread epidemic of weak password reuse,' noted Neringa Macijauskaite, information security researcher at Cybernews. 'Only 6 percent of passwords are unique, leaving other users highly vulnerable to dictionary attacks. For most, security hangs by the thread of two-factor authentication – if it's even enabled.' Experts called for an acceleration of tighter security methods, highlighting that cybercriminals only require an exposed password to then access email addresses and other personal data. The leaks examined by researchers were 'loaded with information that could be used to steal accounts or impersonate affected people in identity theft attacks,' the study noted. The study found that millions still favor basic passwords that are easy to remember – and easy for hackers to guess. 'Password' is used by 56 million people, and 53 million use 'admin.' Researchers also found that '1234' is in almost 4 percent of all passwords, which is easy for hackers to guess. People's names were the second most popular choice for a password. 'Many users choose a name as part of their password. We cross-referenced the dataset with the 100 most popular names of 2025 and found that there's a whopping 8 percent chance for them to be included as part of a password,' Macijauskaite said. Others opted for positive words such as 'love,' which was in 87 million passwords analyzed, and 'sun,' used in 34 million. Swear words are also common in passwords, the research revealed. 'Passwords built from profane or offensive words might seem rare, but they're actually very common in practice,' Macijauskaite said. 'Passwords containing profanity often originate from attempts at personalization or memorability. However, such terms are prevalent in attacker wordlists and pose a substantial risk to account security.' Use password managers to create and store unique passwords for different accounts. Never reuse passwords. Make sure your password is at least 12 characters long and includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and at least one special symbol. Enable multi-factor authentication when possible, which reduces the risk even if passwords are leaked or hacked. Review access controls regularly, and perform regular security audits. Monitor and react to credential leaks.
