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28% of the compromised information is CVV insecurity codes, which are vital for transaction verification.

Their exposure poses a considerable risk, as they can be used to authorise fraudulent transactions.

Image of person holding credit card

As well as this, 33% of the breached card details consisted of card expiration dates.

The United States topped the list with 773 breaches per 100,000 residents.

The UK was second with 248 per 100,000 residents, and Canada was third with 225 per 100,000.

Cartoon cybercriminal stealing online goods

The United States stands out as the largest economy and experiencing the highest number of breaches.

One-third of these breaches included CVV codes.

Additionally, cybercriminals actively seize publicly available leaked data to access accounts on legitimate websites."

Surfshark graphic of 2024 data breaches

Staying safe

There are ways to stay safe when shopping online this holiday season.

Human error is still the biggest cause of cybercrime, so staying vigilant is a must.

Whenever you’re entering card details, try and establish if the site is genuine and secure.

A person typing on a computer while hackers use phishing to steal a file from their computer

What about VPNs?

However, some VPN providers offercybersecurity protectionas part of their plans.

A number of providers offer phishing protection the best of which being NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro.

Victims of Identity Theft

NordPVN also offersNordProtectas part of its top-tier Prime plan.

Thebest beginner VPN,ExpressVPN, also offers a similar product.

Its newly launchedIdentity Defendertool is a suite of identity alert and protection features.

VPN on phone in front of US flag

Identity Defender is included in ExpressVPN’s 2-year plan actually makingExpressVPN a bit of a bargain.

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A woman�s hands holding a smartphone with a lock symbol on it, in front of a laptop that also has a lock symbol on it.

A hacker typing quickly on a keyboard

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