Organisations in the UAE faced a sharp escalation in cyber pressure during September, with average weekly attacks rising 47% year on year to 2,521, according to the latest threat intelligence from Check Point Research.
The increase broadly mirrors the global trend. Worldwide, organisations experienced an average of 2,803 attacks per week, up 48% from September 2025 and 16% from August. The figures point to a threat environment expanding not only in volume but across phishing, ransomware and risks associated with enterprise GenAI adoption.
Education remained the world’s most targeted sector, averaging 6,656 weekly attacks per organisation, a 59% year-on-year increase. Telecommunications followed with 3,483 attacks, while government organisations recorded 3,443.
“September’s data shows cyber risk increasing in both volume and breadth. With attacks rising across every region, phishing becoming more frequent, ransomware remaining elevated and GenAI use expanding alongside sensitive-data exposure, security teams cannot rely on fragmented defences.”
— Omer Dembinsky, Data Research Manager, Check Point Research
The growing use of GenAI is creating another layer of exposure. Check Point found that one in every 39 enterprise GenAI prompts presented a high risk of sensitive-data leakage, affecting 89% of organisations regularly using GenAI tools. Network and IT infrastructure information appeared in prompts at 71% of organisations, followed by financial data at 70% and legal and regulatory data at 68%.
Email-based threats also intensified. Phishing accounted for 1.1% of all emails in September, compared with 0.89% in August, with malicious links comprising 81% of phishing emails.
Ransomware remained another major pressure point, with 824 reported attacks globally—53% more than a year earlier. Business Services accounted for 31.3% of reported victims, while North America represented 46% of incidents.
For UAE organisations, the data highlights a widening security challenge: cyber risk is increasingly distributed across traditional infrastructure, cloud environments, email, endpoints and AI tools. The findings strengthen the case for prevention-led security that combines visibility, automation and governance rather than relying on fragmented controls.
