France Drops to 7th in Global Data Breach Ranking, Surfshark Says

Surfshark cautions that the lull does not mean the threat has gone away. Stolen data can sit unused for months before criminals exploit it. "While major incidents often attract public attention, large amounts of stolen information remain hidden for long periods while cybercriminals wait for the right moment to use it," said Tomas Stamulis, Surfshark's chief security officer.

A different picture worldwide

Globally, breaches rose 13.2% over the summer, with 121.8 million accounts compromised. The United States remains by far the most affected country, with 38.1 million accounts, close to 31% of the total.

In Europe, the United Kingdom now leads, with 5.8 million compromised accounts, up 121.6%, which lifts it to 3rd place worldwide. Ukraine jumped from 47th to 6th with 2.6 million accounts affected. Relative to population, Estonia is worst off, with 118 compromised accounts per 1,000 inhabitants.

France is unlikely to enjoy the respite for long. Recent weeks brought a string of incidents: a breach at AP-HP, the country's largest university hospital system; attacks on the Grand Orient de France and the French shooting federation, with data on more than 500,000 people stolen; roughly 230,000 customer accounts exposed at Strasbourg's transport company; and the theft of 14 million license plates from Auto-Planning, a booking provider for technical inspection centers. The fourth-quarter tally could look very different.