Middle East ransomware activity surges over 20X as hacktivism, state-linked espionage and AI-assisted threats converge

Ransomware activity targeting the Middle East surged to its highest level during the 17-month period assessed by CloudSEK , jumping from 17 threat intelligence feeds in April 2025 to 357 in June 2026 — more than a 20-fold increase. The sharp ransomware escalation is part of a wider shift in the region’s cyber threat landscape, where financially motivated cybercrime is increasingly operating alongside politically driven hacktivism, state-linked espionage, destructive attacks and rapid exploitatio