Group-IB, creator of cybersecurity technologies, has launched its High-Tech Crime Trends Report 2026. The report shows that supply chain attacks are now reshaping the global cyber threat landscape. For organizations across the Middle East and Africa, expanding cloud adoption, digital government platforms, and fintech ecosystems have made these attacks a growing systemic risk.

This year’s report reveals that cybercrime is moving away from isolated intrusions toward ecosystem-wide compromise. Attackers exploit trusted vendors, open-source software, SaaS platforms, browser extensions, and managed service providers to access hundreds of downstream organizations.

In MEA, Group-IB observed that phishing activity in 2025 heavily targeted internet services (52.49%), financial institutions (28.50%), and logistics (11.20%). While phishing often begins with individuals, breaches within organizations can trigger cascading effects across customers, partners, and connected ecosystems.

The report combines worldwide telemetry with on-the-ground investigations. It uses adversary-centric analysis and real-world case studies to show how supply chain compromises unfold. Cases include open-source package poisoning, malicious browser extensions, OAuth token abuse, cascading SaaS breaches, and ransomware fueled by upstream access brokers.

Group-IB’s predictive intelligence shows that supply chain attacks no longer act as standalone incidents. Phishing, identity compromise, malicious extensions, data breaches, ransomware, and extortion increasingly work as interconnected stages of a single attack chain.

The report highlights that phishing-driven identity compromise affected high-trust sectors in MEA, enabling attackers to scale across digital ecosystems. Over 200 cases of corporate access offered by Initial Access Brokers were identified. Ransomware activity concentrated in the GCC, targeting real estate, financial services, manufacturing, government, and healthcare sectors. Supply chain attacks in IT and industrial services caused disruptions across partner networks, increasing financial and operational damage.

“Cybercrime is no longer defined by single breaches. It is defined by cascading failures of trust,” said Dmitry Volkov, CEO of Group-IB. He added that industrialized supply chain compromise delivers scale, speed, and stealth, allowing upstream breaches to ripple across entire industries.

The High-Tech Crime Trends Report 2026 also shows the weaponization of open-source ecosystems, rise of malicious browser extensions, AI-driven phishing, OAuth abuse, and industrialized ransomware. Threat actors such as Lazarus, Scattered Spider, HAFNIUM, DragonForce, 888, and Shai-Hulud are exploiting trusted platforms for asymmetric impact.

Powered by intelligence from Group-IB’s Digital Crime Resistance Centers and global monitoring, the report provides actionable insight for enterprises, governments, and law enforcement to anticipate risks and disrupt attack chains. The High-Tech Crime report underscores that organizations must secure trust across all relationships, identities, and dependencies to prevent cascading cyber threats.

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