Mexico and South Africa See Surge in Identity‑Related Cyber Breaches

A Sophos report released on 4 June 2026 found that 83 % of Mexican organisations suffered at least one identity‑related incident in the past year, making Mexico the second‑most‑affected country worldwide after Switzerland. Two‑thirds of ransomware attacks began with compromised identities, and breaches cost an average $1.64 million to remediate. The study highlighted poor management of non‑human identities – service accounts, APIs and AI agents – as a major factor, with 41 % of breaches linked to such assets.

A CyberArk‑Palo Alto Networks study of South African firms shows a similarly alarming picture: 79 % experienced three or more identity‑related breaches in the last twelve months, and 93 % reported at least one breach overall. The rapid expansion of machine and AI identities (ratio 92 to 1) is outpacing security controls, leading to average financial impacts of roughly $248 k per certificate‑related failure. Experts call for unified, automated identity‑security platforms to curb the growing risk.