An analysis of Q3 2026 global account breaches by Surfshark highlights shifting regional threats, including a 13.2% rise in worldwide exposures reaching 121.8 million records, alongside distinct density metrics and localized extortion claims.
The picture varied significantly by country, with the UK recording a large increase and overtaking France as the worst-hit country in Europe. The number of British users whose data fell into the wrong hands more than doubled to 5,8 million, a 121,6% increase. Ukraine also recorded a significant increase, moving from 47th to 6th globally, with 2,6 million accounts affected over a three-month period.
Which organizations were targeted?
The rise in Britain has been linked to attacks on major organisations. In late July, a ransomware group called ExfilSquad claimed to have stolen contact details of more than 100.000 police officers and employees from the police’s National Legal Database. The same group also said it had leaked around 600.000 records from the Department for Education.
In Ukraine’s case, the increase follows a broader trend of pressure. According to a Microsoft report for the first half of the year, the country ranked first in Europe and third globally in cyberattacks. At the same time, the Ukrainian cyberattack response service handled about 200 incidents targeting citizens between January and September, double the number compared to the 80 incidents in the same period last year, with many cases involving attempts to steal passwords for messaging apps such as Telegram and Signal.
The countries with the largest and densest leakage
Globally, the United States remained in first place with 38,1 million leaks, accounting for almost a third of the global total. The top five were rounded out by Brazil with 7 million, Great Britain with 5,8 million, India with 5,5 million and Australia with 3,1 million.
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In contrast, France saw a sharp decline, recording 2,4 million compromised accounts from 19,7 million in the previous quarter, dropping out of the top three. In terms of density of incidents relative to population, Estonia ranked first worldwide with 118 compromised accounts per 1.000 inhabitants.
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