Typically, when individuals consider Middle Eastern cyber incidents, they likely have in mind state-sponsored intelligence and malware attacks. But in recent years, ransomware has posed the greatest threat to businesses in the Middle East. Financial institutions in Dubai, alongside other businesses in the region, have experienced a surge in ransomware incidents, including airlines industry in Saudi Arabia.
The story of ransomware in the Gulf region, including the execution, perpetrators, and preventive measures that businesses can adopt to detect and respond to threats before they escalate, is detailed in the following text.
The Scale of the Problem
The threat landscape in the UAE is growing. The UAE Cyber Security Council stated the UAE faces more than 200,000 cyberattacks every day. Government, finance, aviation, and healthcare sectors are under constant threat. While there is a mix of attacks, a large number of these are ransomware attacks. In fact, last year ransomware accounted for 51% of all malware incidents reported to the council.
The Qilin and DarkVault groups, among others, have turned the Gulf into their playground. The Gulf is one of the few places where so many dangerous baits can be employed for monetary interests. Oil, energy, logistics, and finance are a strategic bonanza and fiercely contested.
Threat actors launching targeted attacks against these companies know if they cripple one business they can in turn clamp down on larger parts of the world’s economic infrastructure.
To counter this, firms are working closely with specialized security partners such as Cyble threat intelligence company, which provides deep insights into adversarial behavior, supply chain exposures, and vulnerability management practices that strengthen overall defenses against ransomware.
Why the Gulf Is a Target
Three factors make the Gulf attractive target for ransomware groups:
- High-value industries – The oil and financial sectors are considered critical national assets. For perpetrators, it means higher ransom payouts.
- Geographic position = Strategic -The Gulf states connect Europe, Asia, and Africa. Disruption of trade at the Gulf would negatively impact international trade.
- Rapid digital growth – Digitization has brought many efficiencies and benefits, but also new vulnerabilities. Many systems, particularly older infrastructure, were developed without any acknowledgment of ransomware.
These reasons easily characterize why ransomware worry is increasing in the Gulf despite more global crackdowns on ransomware.
Ransomware Groups in the Middle East
Several groups are very active in the region and each have their own distinct style, tools, and targeted victims.
- Qilin Ransomware Middle East- Qilin has been one of the most aggressive groups in recent months. In July alone, it accounted for 17% of all claimed global ransomware victims. Its attacks include government agencies, IT providers, and even aviation companies. What makes Qilin dangerous is its strategy of double extortion — encrypting data and threatening to leak it if the ransom isn’t paid.
- Conti Ransomware UAE- While the Comti brand has disbursed, affiliates are still actively targeting organizations in the Gulf. The incidents of Conti ransomware UAE have been affiliated with large-scale data theft campaigns focused on banks and the healthcare sector. Conti’s tactics remain aggressive through the heavy use of phishing emails and exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities.
- DarkVault Ransomware Gulf- A new entry within the Gulf is DarkVault ransomware Gulf operations. Attacks by this group are associated with educational institutions and telecommunication organizations. DarkVault appears to be growing within the Gulf through supply chain compromises focusing on third-party software providers.
- Ransomware-as-a-Service Gulf- Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) Gulf offerings are also a burgeoning trend. With RaaS, secure malware is rented by established ransomware groups to affiliates and anyone with basic hacking skills can launch an attack and share in the profit with the developers of the malware. This significantly lowers the barrier of entry and explains the number of new groups appearing throughout the MENA region.
How Attackers Operate
Understanding ransomware attacks is a first step toward mitigating the threat. In the Gulf region, malicious actors employ:
- Vulnerability exploitation – The vast majority of reported ransomware attacks involve unpatched systems. The incidents in the Middle East relating to CVE vulnerabilities being exploited, serve as a prime example of how quickly criminals move to take advantage of system weaknesses the moment they are publicly disclosed.
- Phishing campaigns – Employees are targeted with malware-laden emails that appear to be legitimate business correspondence.
- Third-party compromises – Vulnerabilities in a service provider’s security can be an entry point into a more prominent target.
- Data leak sites of ransomware operators – Post-compromise, ransomware gangs threaten the victims by publishing the compromised data on underground forums and leak sites to coerce a ransom payment.
Not long ago, the Everest ransomware gang claimed to have breached a UAE airline and a Saudi pharmaceutical company, and in a few days after the breach, they published the stolen files on leak sites, drawing public attention and damaging the victims’ reputations.
Tripple Extortion: A Trend on the Rise
Ransomware originally just encrypted data. Attackers discovered that companies restored their backups anyway, so they introduced double extortion ransomware tactics via Gulf ransomware.
Here’s how it works:
- Attackers steal sensitive data first.
- Then they will encrypt the victim’s systems.
- The stolen data gets published on data leak sites as Gulf ransomware platforms, assuming that a company refuses to pay.
This makes it nearly impossible for organizations to ignore the threat of data breach. Even if a company were to restore the systems, it still has a data breach.
Strategic Targets
Not every sector is targeted and hit equally. The UAE Cyber Security Council reports:
- Government targets in the Gulf account for 30% of attacks.
- For financial sector, ransomware in Middle East accounts for approximately 7%.
- Also known are education, aviation and healthcare.
For government, the reason is often due to espionage or political disruption, for banks and hospitals, the reason is more financial. Attackers know that these sectors can afford no downtime.
Here are the Gulf Cybersecurity Ransomware Trends
On a larger scale, the data shows a significant upward trajectory. While numbers for ransomware can fluctuate globally, the Gulf data shows continuing high levels of activity over the past several months. July of 2025 was the third consecutive month of increasing ransomware activity with an upward spike of over 400 attacks worldwide — with a large share of these attacks aimed at Middle Eastern countries. Our analysis revealed several trends:
- There is a major uptick of groups adopting Ransomware as a Service Gulf models.
- Qilin ransomware continues to dominate data leak sites in the Middle East.
- Affiliates such as DevMan are working across multiple groups including Qilin and DragonForce.
- There are nearly 40 new ransomware variants in July, confirming how quickly things affect change.
Understanding Third-Party Risk
The majority of successful ransomware events in the Gulf involve third parties – vendors, contractors, or service providers. A vulnerability in the supply chain becomes the attackers’ entrance ticket.
For this reason, understanding Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) is important. Cyble has supported TPRM through its technology that allows organizations to map their vendor ecosystem, identify risk, and monitor vulnerabilities in real time with comprehensive Third Party Risk Management Solutions.
Cyble threat intelligence company has supported TPRM through its technology that allows organizations to map their vendor ecosystem, identify risk, and monitor vulnerabilities in real time. Coupling these insights with vulnerability management programs ensures that exploitable flaws in the ecosystem are remediated before they can be weaponized by ransomware groups.
Fostering Resilience
So, what can businesses in the Gulf do? This is not an action tool, but a multi-faceted approach. Alongside traditional patching and phishing defenses, several enterprises are also experimenting with agentic AI models that actively simulate attacker techniques and recommend defensive actions. Combined with strong vulnerability management processes and vendor monitoring solutions, these approaches make it harder for adversaries like Qilin and DarkVault to exploit weaknesses.
- Patch fast – Many ransomware CVE vulnerabilities reported are often attacked and successfully exploited within a few days of disclosure in the Middle East. While it isn’t possible to patch every vulnerability, the quicker patches are made, lower the risk.
- Employee training – Most attack vectors still begin with a phishing email. Educating your employees on awareness helps.
- Third-party assessment – Reviewing vendors thoroughly, as well as third-party risk management, mitigates supply chain risk.
- Apply a standard – Standards or frameworks like ISO 27001 – and even national cybersecurity guiding regulations provide better practices.
- Prepare to recover – Regular testing of backups is just as important as creating a backup.
The paradigm needs to be resilience, not just prevention. Assume you will be attacked, and plan accordingly.
Conclusion
The rise of Ransomware in the Gulf is more than simply a regional concern. It is a global alert. With sliding strategic industries, rapid digitalization, and emerging geopolitical issues, the Middle East is an ideal market for cybercriminals.
Hackers do not appear to be slowing down, as groups like Qilin, Conti, and DarkVault continue to attack governments, banks, and critical infrastructure, highlighting the stakes involved. But this is not the end of the story. Businesses that commit to visibility, strengthen their vendor risk management, and have plans in place to recover can remain in-front of any threats. In the long term, resilience can no longer be considered optional.
For Gulf nations — and for the rest of the world that depends on them — staying one step ahead of ransomware is more than cybersecurity. It is national security.
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