With the Rise of Pirate Attacks.. Which Arab Countries Are Strongest in Cybersecurity?

SadaNews - The digital transformation in Arab countries is accelerating, increasing the risks of accompanying cyber attacks. Last year, the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa were the focus of 25 advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, according to data from Kaspersky.

These groups primarily target financial services, critical infrastructure, defense sectors, and governments, with their expansion increasingly moving towards emerging commercial and industrial sectors. So how are countries in the region responding to these threats?

What is the size of the cybersecurity market in the region?

Spending on information technology in the region is showing clear growth, with Gartner expecting spending on information security in the Middle East and North Africa to reach $3.3 billion by 2025, a 14% increase from 2024.

Sharif Shaltout, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Liquid C2, noted in an interview with Asharq that the total size of the regional market has reached around $15 billion this year, with forecasts predicting growth between 9% and 13% over the next few years.

He pointed out that interest in cybersecurity has notably increased in the Arab region with the rise of artificial intelligence, which has facilitated cyber attacks, phishing, and the discovery of security vulnerabilities more easily.

Which Arab country leads in the cybersecurity race?

Saudi Arabia leads the cybersecurity market in the region with a market size of 15.2 billion riyals ($4 billion) by the end of 2024, a 14% increase from the previous year, according to the National Cybersecurity Authority.

Egypt follows, exceeding a market value of $1 billion this year, expected to reach approximately $1.85 billion by 2031, according to the Blue Wave Consulting research institution.

In the UAE, the Mordor Intelligence platform estimated the market to be worth $820 million in 2025, expected to reach $1.39 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 11% from 2025 to 2030.

In Kuwait, the cybersecurity market is projected to be valued at $620 million in 2025, likely to rise to over $1 billion by 2030, supported by a government plan worth $1 billion to enhance cybersecurity readiness.

In Bahrain, Mordor Intelligence predicted that the cybersecurity market would reach $425 million in 2025 and then rise to $560 million by 2030. For Qatar, the figures are $143 million and $195.7 million for the same period.

To what extent do Arab countries fortify themselves cybernetically?

There is a clear disparity in cybersecurity readiness among Arab countries, according to a report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the Global Cybersecurity Index 2024.

The index divides countries into five levels that express their degree of preparedness to face electronic threats, with Arab countries distributed as follows:

Level one - the highest - includes Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Qatar, all of which achieved high scores ranging from 95 to 100 out of 100 points. This classification indicates that these countries possess comprehensive legal, technical, and regulatory frameworks, in addition to advanced programs for capacity development and enhanced cooperation. No Arab countries fell under level two.

Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Kuwait ranked in level three, achieving scores between 55 and 85, reflecting their ongoing efforts to build their national cybersecurity systems. These countries have the basic legal and regulatory foundations but have not yet reached full maturity or comprehensive coordination among stakeholders. The classification indicates that they have started to implement national strategies and develop human competencies, but they need to strengthen cooperation and expand their technical and organizational capacities to achieve higher readiness.

Iraq, Lebanon, Mauritania, Sudan, Syria, and Palestine were in level four, with scores between 20 and 55, indicating they are at an early stage of development in the field of cybersecurity, having initial efforts to establish legal and institutional frameworks, but need to strengthen their technical infrastructure and human capabilities and international cooperation to reach higher levels of digital readiness.

Yemen was the only Arab country in level five, the lowest on the index, scoring between 0 and 20 points, reflecting that it is still in the early stages of building its national cybersecurity system and lacks integrated legal and institutional frameworks.

Commenting on this, Muhammad Khawaja, co-founder of Fikr Ventures, stated that the region in general, and Saudi Arabia specifically, has transitioned from the awareness phase to the execution phase, with governments focusing on flexibility, rapid response, and collaboration between the public and private sectors to address increasingly complex threats.

What are the most common types of cyber attacks in the region?

Imad Hafar, head of technical experts for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa at Kaspersky, says that cyber attacks targeting the region largely rely on targeted phishing campaigns utilizing advanced social engineering techniques to breach systems.

He added that Kaspersky's data from the first eight months of 2025 showed that more than 50 million electronic and local threats were detected and blocked in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, with a noticeable increase in attacks directed against the business sector, where the discovery of "backdoors" used for malware increased by 32%, and exploitation of vulnerabilities rose by 21%, with attacks concentrated on Microsoft Office programs. Additionally, password theft attempts increased by 72%, and spyware increased by 58%.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are the most common type of cyber attacks in the Middle East and North Africa, rising unprecedentedly by 236% during the second quarter of 2025, the highest in the region's history, according to a report from StormWall.

The report also recorded a 162% increase in API-layer attacks and a ninefold increase in probing attacks used by hackers to discover vulnerabilities before executing full attacks.

Ransomware accounts for about 52% of known motive attacks in the Middle East, driven by financial profits, according to the digital defense report issued by Microsoft for 2025, which showed that 80% of incidents investigated in 2024 aimed to steal data for financial gain rather than intelligence gathering.

It is noteworthy that phishing attacks are prevalent globally, with approximately 3.4 billion fraudulent emails sent daily, while Microsoft analyzes over 5 billion messages to detect malware and blocks about 4.5 million new attempts daily.

Cyber attacks driven by artificial intelligence have also emerged as an escalating threat, as attackers utilize AI techniques to automate phishing campaigns, broaden social engineering, create artificial media, swiftly discover security vulnerabilities, and generate more sophisticated malware.

How much do cyber attacks cost globally and in the Arab region?

A report published on the World Economic Forum's website indicates that cybercrime costs the world about $18 million per minute, equivalent to $9.5 trillion annually, which is roughly equivalent to the GDP of the third largest economy in the world if those losses represented an independent country.

In the Middle East, the cost of a single cyber incident averages $8 million, according to the report, nearly double the global average of $4.45 million, reflecting the scale of the risks facing the region's economies as digital attacks escalate.

According to the Cybersecurity Summit report for the Middle East and North Africa for 2025, the most significant economic risks associated with major cyber attacks manifest in huge financial losses that could temporarily paralyze economies. For instance, the disruption of systems at CrowdStrike and Microsoft in July 2024 halted operations at airports, airlines, and financial institutions worldwide, recording losses in the billions of dollars, with a direct impact on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and airlines in Morocco and Lebanon.

The most affected sectors by cyber attacks

The Cybersecurity Summit report indicates that cyber attacks often target critical infrastructure, particularly in the communications, utilities, transportation, healthcare, and financial sectors, which may lead to the interruption of essential services and widespread economic and humanitarian crises.

Typically, the repercussions of targeted attacks on these sectors can undermine investor and market confidence in the country and its ability to secure its infrastructure against cyber attacks. This makes strengthening cybersecurity a strategic necessity to protect economies from potentially costly ramifications, according to the World Economic Forum report.

What is the solution?

Sharif Shaltout from Liquid C2 believes that regional countries need to reconsider their encryption systems, what is known as "Quantum Safe," along with adopting "quantum computing" to avoid repeated cyber attacks.

He added that the Arab market has now changed and expanded significantly compared to four years ago, as both small and large companies are susceptible to such attacks, and therefore, they need to act quickly to technically protect themselves.

Hafar from Kaspersky emphasized the importance of companies adopting a multi-layered security approach that combines advanced protection systems, employee training, threat information sharing, and continuous monitoring. He explained that institutions need to develop a comprehensive business continuity plan that includes data backup, disaster recovery procedures, and clear response protocols to ensure operations continue even in the event of cyber incidents.

He concluded that adopting a proactive security strategy is essential in preventing cyber attacks, emphasizing that these strategies should be based on prevention, early detection, and continuous improvement of digital defense measures.