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ANALYSIS
MENA: CLOUDFLARE REPORTS ON UNRELENTING CYBER OFFENSIVE AND REGIONAL RESILIENCE
Cloudflare’ s Q2 2025 Global Internet Trends and Insights paints a clear picture of a digital landscape under relentless siege.
While there’ s a slight quarter-overquarter dip in global threat volume, the overriding narrative remains one of escalating danger, with a staggering 21 % year-over-year increase in blocked cyberthreats.
The surge, even as global internet activity continues its impressive 40 % YoY jump, underscores the critical challenge facing businesses and individuals: the internet is growing, and so too is the sophistication and sheer volume of malicious activity.
The regional breakdown offers nuanced insights. EMEA and APAC experienced the highest yearover-year increases in blocked threats( 22 % and 24 % respectively), suggesting these regions are increasingly attractive targets for cybercriminals. While Q2 saw a general quarter-over-quarter decrease in threats across all regions, likely a natural ebb after a Q1 surge, the persistent annual growth figures are the true indicator of the long-term trend. This sustained elevation in cyberattacks
This sustained elevation in cyberattacks should serve as a wake-up call. should serve as a wake-up call, particularly for organisations that might interpret a short-term dip as a sign of easing pressure.
The Middle East: A tale of two cities( KSA vs. UAE)
The data offers a particularly compelling contrast within the Middle East, specifically between Saudi Arabia( KSA) and the United Arab Emirates( UAE):
• Saudi Arabia’ s relative calm( post-spike): KSA saw a notable 76 % quarter-over-quarter decrease in blocked cyberthreats, driven largely by the conclusion of a massive, sustained attack on a project management training firm in Q1 2025. This highlights how a single, prolonged campaign can skew regional statistics dramatically. While the overall internet traffic remained stable, the drop in mitigated traffic suggests a period of relative respite from targeted attacks. However, KSA still faced 94 million cyberthreats blocked daily and its top targeted verticals – Internet, Consumer Goods, IT and Services and Airlines / Aviation – reveal diverse attack motivations, from intellectual property theft to service disruption. The reliance on Web Application Firewall( WAF) rules for 92 % of defences against application layer attacks suggests a strong foundational security posture,
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