By 
DDoS attacks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region skyrocketed by 216% in 2024 compared to the previous year, marking the highest year-over-year increase recorded by cybersecurity provider StormWall.
RELATED: DDoS attacks surge 238% in MENA in Q3, hackers bombard banks and payment providers
StormWall’s latest report reveals that financial services accounted for 34% of all DDoS attacks in 2024, overtaking all other industries as the prime target. Government services (18%) and retail (16%) followed as the second and third most attacked sectors, respectively.
Carpet bombing attacks increased 184% year-over-year, according to the StormWall report, as hackers moved from targeting individual IPs to entire IP ranges. This method, particularly disruptive to ISPs, cloud providers, and enterprise networks, maximizes damage.
Geopolitical tensions shape attack landscape
Geopolitical tensions continue to shape the attack landscape. Particularly, hacktivists targeted government services in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran saw the largest regional increase in attacks, rising from 6% to 12% of total DDoS activity in the MENA region. In addition, politically motivated attacks spiked during key events such as Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic summits, when government websites experienced a 312% increase in DDoS activity.
In terms of country breakdown, Saudi Arabia was the most targeted country, accounting for 26% of all attacks, followed by the UAE (17%) and Iran (12%). The financial sector in the UAE was particularly hard hit, with a 263% increase in attacks. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia saw a spike in attacks on the retail and telecom sectors, particularly during major shopping events.
Surprisingly, small and medium-sized businesses were targeted 64% of the time, meaning that attacks on SMBs were more frequent than attacks on enterprises. Attackers now prefer to hit these smaller targets, likely because they have weaker security than large enterprises, StormWall report says.
