Dubai: Mastercard released its inaugural Cyber Pulse report, providing a comprehensive view of the evolving cyber threat landscape across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) over the past year.
The report combines regional threat intelligence from Mastercard’s Cyber Insights platform with organizational cyber health assessments from RiskRecon, a tool that allows companies to assess the level of security of their Internet assets. This also includes advanced threat intelligence from Recorded Future – acquired by Mastercard in December 2024 – which continuously analyzes data to identify cyber threats and risk patterns.
With visibility into emerging threat activity and the practical impact on businesses and governments, the report translates cyber risk into insights that matter for operational resilience, economic continuity and long-term trust in the digital economy.
Global research highlights how material cyber risk has become for businesses in our region. Quoted analysis IBM Data Breach Cost Report 2025 shows that the average cost of a data breach in the Middle East is nearly $7.29 million per incident—64% higher than the global average—reinforcing why cyber resilience today is an established concern at executive and board level.
The findings show that cybercrime across the region increased in early 2026 following a period of geopolitical instability, highlighting the need for organizations to move beyond awareness and towards sustainable cyber preparedness and resilience. The report also identifies that financially motivated and disruptive activity accounts for 71 percent of cybercrime observed across EEMEA, reinforcing the need for stronger cyber preparedness across sectors.
“Cyber resilience is synonymous with business resilience and operational well-being. Our first Cyber Pulse report highlights the importance of organizations adopting a proactive and integrated approach to cyber security alongside ongoing vigilance. At Mastercard, we are committed to empowering our partners and customers with the intelligence, tools and expertise they need to navigate, build a more secure digital future for all those engaged in the digital economy,” said Selin Bahadirli, Executive Vice President Services, EEMEA, Mastercard.
Business systems are the primary targets
The Mastercard Cyber Pulse report states that business systems, customer information and physical infrastructure are the top targets for attackers, accounting for 66 percent of all targets. Most attackers aim to disrupt operations, commit fraud and cause physical damage. Certain sectors are also at higher risk of cyber attacks. In the EEMEA region for example, the public, technology and financial sectors account for 44 percent of all target industries. These sectors are attractive targets due to the concentration of high-value data and their importance to the economic and digital ecosystems.
Cyber risk often scales through repeatable patterns
Common attack methods such as malware, ransomware and email-based social engineering continue to dominate across EEMEA. While basic cyber health remains relatively strong in some markets, application security and web encryption emerge as consistent areas for improvement. To help remedy this, the report provides specific recommendations for businesses including improving application security and managing vulnerabilities.
Cyber security capabilities available to organizations
Cyber resilience matters not just to large institutions, but to the millions of micro, small and medium-sized businesses that depend on secure and reliable access to the digital economy. Therefore, strengthening cyber resilience is a critical enabler of sustainable growth, inclusion and long-term economic participation.
Globally, Mastercard has already surpassed its goal of bringing 50 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises into the digital economy and is now advancing a new ambition to connect and protect 500 million individuals and small businesses by 2030 – reinforcing our long-term commitment to inclusive and resilient growth.
This commitment is supported by sustained investment in trust and security. Since 2019, Mastercard has invested approximately $12.6 billion in cybersecurity innovation. In 2025 alone, the company processed 175 billion transactions, leveraging its insights and advanced data science to detect vulnerabilities faster and with greater accuracy, increasing protection across the ecosystem.
Through its comprehensive suite of cyber advisory services, global partnerships and intelligence-led capabilities; this includes Recorded Future, which provides real-time insight into cyber threats enabling businesses and governments to identify emerging risks earlier, prioritize response and make more informed decisions in an increasingly complex digital environment.
Combined with products such as RiskRecon, CyberQuant and Cyber Insights, Mastercard enables organizations to assess their cyber exposure, understand how threats may evolve and translate intelligence into actionable actions that strengthen trust, continuity and resilience.
The full Mastercard Cyber Pulse report is available here.
