Middle East faces surging cybersecurity and ransomware risks

Cybersecurity has emerged as a primary organizational risk in the Middle East, surpassing geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. According to the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES), 81% of surveyed chief audit executives identified cybersecurity as one of their top five risks, a significant increase from previous years.

This shift reflects a growing regional dependence on digital infrastructure across banking, energy, and government services. The risk is further complicated by supply-chain vulnerabilities, with third-party compromises accounting for 17% of regional breaches. Additionally, the rise of artificial intelligence is expanding the cyber risk perimeter.

Parallel data from CloudSEK indicates a massive surge in ransomware activity across the region. Monthly ransomware threat intelligence feeds rose from 17 in April 2025 to a peak of 357 in June 2026. While hacktivism remains the largest threat category by volume, ransomware has seen a more than 20-fold increase. Israel was identified as the most targeted country overall, followed by Turkey, which faced the highest levels of ransomware targeting specifically within industrial and logistics sectors. Other heavily targeted nations include Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.