Mastercard's Cyber Pulse Report: A Comprehensive Look at Digital Resilience in EEMEA
The Mastercard Cyber Pulse report offers a comprehensive view of the evolving cyber threat landscape across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) over the last year. It combines regional threat intelligence from Mastercard's Cyber Insights platform with organisational cyber health assessments from RiskRecon and advanced threat intelligence from Recorded Future.
The report highlights the importance of cyber resilience for businesses and governments, translating cyber risk into insights that matter for operational resilience, economic continuity, and long-term trust in the digital economy. It underscores the materiality of cyber risk for businesses in the region, with the average cost of a data breach in the Middle East being nearly $7.29 million per incident, 64% higher than the global average.
One of the key findings is that cybercrime across the region increased in early 2026 following a period of geopolitical instability. This highlights the need for organisations to move beyond awareness and towards sustained cyber readiness and resilience. The report also identifies that financially motivated and disruptive activity accounts for 71% of observed cybercrime across EEMEA, reinforcing the need for stronger cyber readiness across sectors.
Business systems, customer information, and physical infrastructure are the primary targets for attackers, accounting for 66% of all targets. Most attackers aim to disrupt operations, commit fraud, and cause physical damage. Certain sectors are also at higher risk of cyberattacks, with the public, technology, and financial sectors accounting for 44% of all targeted industries in the EEMEA region.
Common attack methods such as malware, ransomware, and email-based social engineering continue to dominate across EEMEA. While baseline cyber health remains relatively strong in some markets, application security and web encryption emerge as consistent areas for improvement. The report provides specific recommendations for businesses, including improving application security and vulnerability management.
Cyber resilience is not only important for large institutions but also for the millions of micros, small, and medium-sized businesses that depend on secure, reliable access to the digital economy. Strengthening cyber resilience is a critical enabler of sustainable growth, inclusion, and long-term economic participation.
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. This commitment is underpinned by sustained investment in trust and security, with Mastercard investing approximately $12.6 billion in cybersecurity innovation since 2019.
Through its comprehensive suite of cyber advisory services, global partnerships, and intelligence-led capabilities, Mastercard enables organisations to assess their cyber exposure, understand how threats may evolve, and translate intelligence into practical actions that strengthen trust, continuity, and resilience.
In conclusion, the Mastercard Cyber Pulse report highlights the importance of cyber resilience for businesses and governments in the EEMEA region. It underscores the need for organisations to adopt a proactive and integrated approach to cybersecurity and to remain vigilant in the face of evolving cyber threats.
