Retail Cyberattacks Surge in MEA: Small Businesses Bear Brunt of Evolving Threat Landscape

Retail Sector Emerges as Prime Target in MEA Cyber Campaigns

While government institutions and financial services typically dominate cybersecurity headlines in the Middle East and Africa, a surprising sector has climbed the ranks of most-targeted industries: retail. According to SOCRadar’s latest MEA Threat Landscape Report, retail attacks now compete with—and sometimes surpass—assaults on telecommunications and banking infrastructure, revealing a significant shift in regional cybercriminal priorities.

Retail Sector Emerges as Prime Target in MEA Cyber Campaigns
Unpacking the Retail Targeting Phenomenon
Why Retailers? The Attraction for Cybercriminals
Real-World Impact: From Baby Food to Shopping Malls
Regional Ransomware Anomalies: Pakistan’s Unexpected Top Spot
The Attribution Gap: Unknown Actors Dominate
Data Collection Questions and Continental Gaps
Strategic Implications for Regional Cybersecurity

The findings challenge conventional wisdom about cyber threats in a region often associated with politically motivated hacking and nation-state operations. Instead, financially driven attacks against merchants selling everyday items like clothing and baby food have become increasingly prevalent, highlighting how cybercriminals are adapting their tactics to maximize profits with minimal effort., according to recent studies

Unpacking the Retail Targeting Phenomenon

Between September 2024 and September 2025, retail consistently ranked among the top five most-targeted sectors in the MEA region based on dark web threat activity. This positioning becomes particularly noteworthy when considering that retail attacks actually decreased from 2024, when the sector held the dubious distinction of being the second most-targeted industry behind only the public sector.

The retail category’s prominence becomes even more striking when separated from electronic shopping and mail-order houses, which SOCRadar tracked as a distinct category that itself ranked seventh among targeted industries. This separation underscores that traditional brick-and-mortar retailers face comparable threats to their digital counterparts, despite often having fewer cybersecurity resources., according to emerging trends

Why Retailers? The Attraction for Cybercriminals

According to cybersecurity experts, retail presents an ideal target for financially motivated threat actors operating in the region. Certis Foster, senior threat hunter lead at Deepwatch, explains the criminal calculus: “Small to medium retailers process plenty of credit cards, but they are typically not in a position to implement adequate security measures at a high cost. Actors believe they can break in easily and immediately sell the credit card numbers on the Dark Web for quick cash.”

The operational pressure on retailers further increases their vulnerability. Unlike many other businesses, retail stores cannot afford extended downtime, making them more likely to pay ransoms quickly to resume operations. This combination of accessible systems and urgent operational needs creates a perfect storm for extortion-based attacks., according to market developments

Real-World Impact: From Baby Food to Shopping Malls

The consequences extend beyond theoretical risks. SOCRadar researchers identified a dark web post advertising data from 57,548 stolen orders from an Egyptian baby food e-store. In another instance, threat actors marketed 259GB of data allegedly stolen from shopping malls in Israel.

These incidents demonstrate the dual nature of retail targeting—sometimes purely criminal, other times overlapping with politically motivated campaigns. The accessibility of retail systems, combined with the potential for both financial gain and disruptive impact, makes the sector attractive to diverse threat actor groups., according to recent research

Regional Ransomware Anomalies: Pakistan’s Unexpected Top Spot

The report revealed several counterintuitive findings about ransomware distribution across the region. Contrary to expectations that politically charged Israel or technologically advanced UAE would lead in attacks, Pakistan experienced twice as many ransomware incidents as any other country in the region.

According to the data, Pakistan accounted for more than a third of all ransomware attacks across the vast MEA territory, with Saudi Arabia experiencing only half as many incidents. Analysts speculate that “the large concentration suggests that attackers see it as a high-return target, likely due to weaker defenses across key industries.”

The Attribution Gap: Unknown Actors Dominate

Perhaps the most concerning trend involves the anonymity of attackers. Of all documented 2025 MENA ransomware attacks, 71.4% were executed by smaller groups, one-off operations, or completely unknown threat actors. This attribution gap signals a troubling democratization of cybercrime tools and techniques.

Foster expresses concern about this development: “It doesn’t sit well with me knowing that the community has never heard of the majority of these actors. It gives me the sense that it’s becoming easier for them and anyone else to do it now, where they can purchase a ransomware kit and start attacking.”

Data Collection Questions and Continental Gaps

The report’s methodology raises questions about the true scope of cyber threats across Africa. Notably, not a single country south of the Sahara appeared in SOCRadar’s data, leaving open whether this reflects collection limitations or genuinely lower attack rates. This gap highlights the need for improved threat intelligence gathering across the entire African continent to develop accurate regional security assessments.

Strategic Implications for Regional Cybersecurity

The evolving threat landscape demands tailored defensive strategies, particularly for the retail sector. Key recommendations include:, as covered previously

Prioritizing basic cybersecurity hygiene for small and medium retailers who cannot afford enterprise-level solutions
Developing sector-specific threat intelligence sharing to help retailers anticipate and prepare for emerging attacks
Implementing ransomware-specific defense measures, including robust backup systems and incident response plans
Enhancing cross-border cooperation to address the regional nature of these threats

As the complete regional threat landscape report demonstrates, the cybersecurity challenges facing the MEA region continue to evolve in unexpected directions. The retail sector’s prominence as a target underscores that cybercriminals are following the path of least resistance—and greatest profit—regardless of a target’s geopolitical significance or technological sophistication.