Nigeria information 119,000 information breaches in Q1 2025, ranks thirty fourth globally –Report
Nigeria recorded over 119,000 leaked information breaches within the first quarter of 2025, in keeping with the most recent international information breach report from cybersecurity agency Surfshark.
This locations the nation thirty fourth worldwide by way of the variety of breached accounts.
A knowledge breach signifies that an intruder copied and leaked consumer information reminiscent of names, surnames, electronic mail addresses, passwords, and so forth.
One breached electronic mail tackle is taken into account as one breached consumer/account.
Nevertheless, whereas the determine for Nigeria could seem alarming, it truly displays a pointy decline in breach exercise in comparison with earlier quarters.
Surfshark’s evaluation signifies an 85% drop within the variety of leaked accounts in Nigeria from This autumn 2024 to Q1 2025, in keeping with a worldwide pattern that noticed leaked accounts plunge 93% year-on-year, from 973.7 million in Q1 2024 to simply 68.3 million in Q1 2025.
Nigeria’s information breach panorama
Surfshark’s long-term information reveals that Nigeria stays one of the crucial affected nations in Sub-Saharan Africa relating to information breaches.
Since 2004, roughly 23.2 million Nigerian consumer accounts have been compromised.
Out of those:
- 7.3 million distinctive electronic mail addresses have been uncovered.
- 13 million passwords have been leaked alongside the accounts.
- 56% of customers whose accounts have been compromised are prone to identification theft, extortion, or unauthorized account entry.
- Statistically, 10 in each 100 Nigerians have been affected by information breaches, and in Q1 2025 alone, roughly one Nigerian account was breached each minute.
Most affected nations
Globally, essentially the most affected nations have been the USA (16.9 million leaked accounts), adopted by Russia (4.4 million), India (4.2 million), Germany (3.9 million), and Spain (2.4 million).
Regardless of the drop in Nigeria and some different nations captured within the report, cybersecurity consultants are warning towards complacency.
“Though the variety of weak accounts in all main areas decreased, individuals ought to stay vigilant,” stated Analysis Lead at Surfshark, Luís Costa.
“Cyberthreats are continuously evolving, and attackers are adapting their techniques. Sturdy safety practices, frequent password updates, and enabling two-factor authentication stay important,” he added.
International locations with the best breach density (measured by the variety of leaked accounts per 1,000 residents) have been:
- South Sudan (61)
- Spain (51)
- United States (49)
- Germany (46)
- Slovenia (45)
- Different nations within the prime 10 embody Israel, the UK, France, Russia, and Norway.
Methodology
Surfshark’s analysis is predicated on information gathered from 29,000 publicly accessible databases.
Every distinctive breached electronic mail tackle is handled as a separate consumer account, and breaches typically embody extra private information reminiscent of passwords, cellphone numbers, IP addresses, and postal codes.
The information was anonymized earlier than evaluation, and nations with populations underneath a million have been excluded from the research.
