Tag: Surfshark

London, United Kingdom – Cybersecurity company Surfshark has recently ran a thought-provoking campaign on the streets of London. The campaign featured individuals wearing signs instead of clothes, urging social media giants to prioritise privacy and stop leaving their users feeling ‘naked’. 

The signs read “Don’t strip users of their privacy” and “Don’t leave your users naked”. The campaigners visited several busy areas across London, including the offices of major tech companies, to amplify their message.

‘Naked People’ raises awareness about social media security practices and the exploitation of user data. Surfshark’s mission is clear: safeguard individuals’ online identities and empower them to regain control of their personal information.

IIt is worth noting that Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was expected to change invasive data collection practices with strict regulation and high fines. However, the huge increase in fines given to top social media platforms for GDPR violations shows that user data protection is still a pressing concern. Moreover, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other big platforms — are all fined for mishandling user data.

Goda Sukackaite, privacy counsel at Surfshark, said, “An analysis of GDPR fines shows that the media, telecommunications, and broadcasting sector is the most heavily fined sector overall. Notably, the top social media companies, which are the largest data collectors, have also received the highest fines.”

She added, “Such penalties demonstrate the imperative to hold major social media players accountable for their data handling practices, ensuring that the privacy and safety of all users is given the utmost consideration and care.”

To highlight these alarming statistics, London’s vibrant and influential landscape offered the perfect setting to spark critical conversations around privacy and challenge the current norms in the tech industry.

Manila, Philippines – The recent ransomware attack against government-controlled health insurance entity PhilHealth depicts a dip on the Philippines’ overall digital quality of life, new data from Surfshark.

Overall, the Philippines is ranked 60th in the overall ranking on digital quality life globally in 2023, dropping by five places from last year.

According to the data, the Philippines ranks 45th in the world in e-security — 1 place lower than last year. While it has beat its other regional counterparts such as Indonesia (61st) and Malaysia (48th) and have data protection laws in place, the country still suffers from various cyberattacks–including the recent ransomware attack carried out by the Medusa group.

Meanwhile, the country ranks 54th in e-infrastructure and 64th in e-government. For context, the e-government pillar shows how advanced a government’s digital services are and the level of AI readiness a country demonstrates, while e-infrastructure shows how it is easy for people to use the internet for various daily activities.

Moreover, the data also notes that Internet in the country remains unaffordable, with Filipinos having to work 10 hours 5 minutes a month to afford fixed broadband internet, and 3 hours 8 minutes 52 seconds a month to afford mobile internet. 

Despite all of this, the internet speed is now 25% higher than the global average, with fixed internet averaging 119 Mbps, and mobile internet averaging 55 Mbps. Since last year, mobile internet speed in the Philippines has improved by 43%, while fixed broadband speed has grown by 59%. Compared to Indonesia, the Philippines’ mobile internet is 107% faster, while fixed broadband is 229% faster.

Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske, spokeswoman at Surfshark, said, “In many nations, ‘digital quality of life’ has merged into the broader concept of overall ‘quality of life’. There’s no other way to look at it now that so many daily activities, including work, education, and leisure, are done online. That’s why it’s crucial to pinpoint the areas in which a nation’s digital quality of life thrives and where attention is needed, which is the precise purpose of the DQL Index.”

Manila, Philippines – The Philippines has been ranked ninth in the Asia-Pacific region with the most breaches, accounting for around 1.2 million users affected, according to the latest study from cybersecurity company Surfshark.

According to the report, the new statistic was 70.2% less than the previous year. It is estimated that 11 in 1,000 people in the Philippines are affected by a data breach.

On a regional level, Asia amounted to a fourth of all world’s breaches with 74.2M, mostly coming from China, Indonesia and India. Turkey ended up in the 4th place regionally, followed by Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Malaysia. 

In APAC, the IndiHome breach was the biggest in the region in 2022, leaking as many as 12.6M accounts. Another notable breach occurred in China, when a breach of a Chinese adult content site Hjedd resulted in around 11M accounts being leaked. This accounted for around a third of all Chinese accounts leaked in 2022.

Globally, 2022 had 68% less breached users than 2021. While the majority of countries around the world showed improvement, the sharpest victim spikes were spotted in Indonesia (269%), Sri Lanka (204%), Russia (191%), Uzbekistan (73%) and China (45%).

Agneska Sablovskaja, lead researcher at Surfshark, said, “While these numbers remain unsettling, we’re happy to report an immense global decrease of 68% compared to last year. Some countries, including U.S., India and Brazil, managed to improve their situation significantly, while Indonesia, China and Russia experienced the biggest surges in data breaches year-over-year.”