A cyber assault hit an Australian consumer each second in 2024, marking a staggering twelvefold improve from the earlier yr. This surge contributed to a world cybersecurity disaster, the place 5.6 billion accounts had been compromised worldwide, equating to 176 breaches per second, based on Surfshark.

The worldwide complete represents an almost eightfold surge from 2023 when solely 23 accounts had been compromised per second.

Australia’s knowledge breach epidemic

Australia recorded 47 million knowledge breaches final yr, up from 2023’s 4.1 million, making it the eleventh most affected nation worldwide, based on Surfshark. On a per capita foundation, 1,785 Australian accounts had been breached per 1,000 residents, far exceeding New Zealand’s 779 per 1,000.

Surfshark, a cybersecurity agency, analysed assault knowledge from 29,000 publicly obtainable databases to place collectively its 2024 knowledge breach recap.

SEE: Phishing Emails in Australia Rise by 30%

“On a world scale, 285 accounts are breached per 100 individuals on common,” Emilija Kucinskaite, senior researcher at Surfshark, stated in a press launch. “Nonetheless, in Australia, this quantity goes as much as 732 per 100 individuals. Statistically talking, a mean Australian has been affected by knowledge breaches round 7 occasions.”

A complete of 554.5 million private information belonging to Australians have been uncovered since 2004, consisting of e mail addresses, passwords, cellphone numbers, bank card particulars, IP deal with, and different delicate info. On common, every e mail deal with was breached with three extra items of delicate knowledge.

Certainly, over the past decade, 192.5 million Australian consumer accounts throughout completely different platforms have been compromised, and 106.9 million of those had been accompanied with passwords. This put 56% of breached customers at risk of account takeover, Surfshark discovered, doubtlessly leading to identification theft, extortion, and different cyber crimes. The uncovered consumer accounts additionally consisted of 49 million distinctive Australian e mail addresses.

A expensive and rising menace

In 2024, the common price of a knowledge breach in Australia reached a document excessive of AUD $4.26 million (USD $2.77 million), representing a 27% improve since 2020. This rise is attributed to:

• Extra phishing assaults
• Longer breach detection occasions
• Rising cybersecurity abilities shortages
• The rising sophistication of cyber threats

Moreover, the Workplace of the Australian Info Commissioner discovered that the variety of notifiable knowledge breaches within the first six months of 2024 (527) was 9% increased than the identical interval in 2023 and marked the biggest quantity since 2020.

Main cyber assaults that hit Australia

A number of high-profile breaches contributed to record-breaking figures. In April, MediSecure, an digital prescriptions supplier, suffered a ransomware assault compromising the private and well being knowledge of roughly 12.9 million Australians.

SEE: Nationwide Public Information Breach: 134 Million Distinctive Emails Leaked

February noticed 122 million people affected by a knowledge leak at B2B demand technology firm DemandScience, which, based on Surfshark, included 1.2 million Australians. Then, in Could, IT supplier Outabox suffered a breach affecting about a million patrons of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory golf equipment.

The world’s largest compilation of passwords to be leaked on-line was additionally found final yr, containing 9,948,575,739 distinctive plaintext entries. The credentials had been found in a file named “rockyou2024.txt” that was posted on a preferred hacking discussion board on July 4, 2024.

Cybersecurity in 2024: a rising battlefield

The rising menace of cyber assaults is not an Australia-specific drawback, with the barrier to entry for hackers being lowered by the accessibility of AI.

The highest 5 nations for breach quantity, from highest to lowest, are China, Russia, the U.S., France, and Germany. The highest three accounted for 46% of the world’s knowledge breaches.

Consultants warn that with out vital motion, publicity to cyber dangers will solely intensify in 2025.