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Cyber Threats Escalate Across the Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region experienced its highest-ever volume of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks in the first half of 2025, according to a new report by StormWall, a leading cybersecurity firm specializing in DDoS protection.
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The report revealed a 216% increase in attack volume compared to the previous year, with 12.4 million total incidents recorded — marking the worst period of cyber hostilities in the region’s history.
Geopolitical Tensions Drive Surge in Attacks
StormWall attributed the dramatic rise to heightened geopolitical tensions, particularly between Israel and Palestine, and Iran and Israel, which have sparked a wave of hacktivism across the region.
During the first quarter of 2025, the region suffered 5.6 million attacks, nearly matching the total for all of 2024 (5.8 million). The second quarter saw an additional 6.8 million incidents, surpassing all previous records.
“Threat actors are learning to use probes to find weak spots,” said Ramil Khantimirov, CEO and founder of StormWall. “This type of behavior was once typical of state-sponsored groups and advanced persistent threats (APTs). Now, even amateur hackers are adopting these methods, making attacks far more damaging and difficult to mitigate.”
Multi-Vector and Botnet Attacks Intensify
The report highlights a 97% increase in multi-vector attacks, now accounting for 57% of all incidents. These complex assaults combine different attack techniques to overwhelm systems more effectively.
Other key findings include:
- Probing attacks surged by 350%, used by hackers to identify vulnerabilities before launching large-scale campaigns.
- Botnet size expanded to an average of 140,000 infected devices, powering over 80% of API-targeted attacks.
- The largest recorded attack reached 1.8 Tbps, targeting a UAE-based financial institution.
Financial, Telecom, and Government Sectors Under Fire
The financial sector was the most targeted, accounting for 26% of total attacks, a 206% increase year-on-year.
This was followed by:
- Telecommunications (21%) — up 196%.
- Government institutions (18%) — up 184%.
Additionally, 12% of attacks were directed at gaming services, coinciding with major gaming events across the region.
Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar Top Target List
By country, Saudi Arabia experienced the highest number of DDoS attacks (21%), followed by the United Arab Emirates (18%) and Qatar (16%).
StormWall’s regional scrubbing centers, with a combined filtering capacity exceeding 5 Tbps, have been at the forefront of mitigating these attacks and protecting enterprise networks from disruption.
The Growing Need for Cyber Resilience
Experts warn that the escalation of DDoS attacks in the MENA region underscores the need for stronger cyber defense infrastructure, threat intelligence sharing, and public-private collaboration.
As cyber threats evolve in sophistication and scale, businesses across the region — especially in finance, telecom, and critical infrastructure — must adopt proactive defense strategies to safeguard operations against increasingly aggressive digital adversaries.
