Russia Has Become The World Leader In Leaks Of Citizens' Personal Data
- 11.09.2026, 19:06
This figure is twice as high as in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and the CIS.
In Russia, 326 data breaches were recorded in 2025 and the first six months of 2026, resulting in the compromise of 1.175 billion records containing data on Russian users, according to estimates by analysts at F6, a developer of IT solutions for combating cybercrime. This number of database breaches was nearly double the corresponding figure in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and other CIS countries combined (164 cases), reports Comnews.
According to Elena Shamshina, technical director of the cyber intelligence department at F6 , the first half of 2026 saw a decline in the number of “leaked” databases from Russian companies. However, the expert noted that cybercriminals continue to attack Russian organizations at an “unprecedentedly high level” “with the aim of causing maximum damage.”
“Russia has historically developed one of the most sophisticated digital ecosystems. Government services, banking, telemedicine, delivery, and car-sharing—all of these generate massive amounts of personal data. Where there is a lot of data, there are also many potential points of failure. In countries in Latin America, the Middle East, or Africa, the penetration rate of digital services is often lower, which means there isn’t much to steal yet—the volume of accumulated data is smaller,” — noted Igor Bederov , chairman of the Council on Countering Technological Offenses of the Coordination Council of the Non-State Security Sector (KS NSB) of Russia .
Russia has previously ranked among the world’s top countries in terms of the volume of data “leaked” online. For example, by the end of 2024, Russian government agencies and commercial companies accounted for 778 of the 9,175 known global data breaches. This represents 8.5% of global data breaches. Consequently, Russia ranked second in this category behind the United States (36.1%), according to a corresponding report by InfoWatch. India ranked third (5.4%), followed by the United Kingdom (3.8%) and Canada (2.9%).