Group-IB High-Tech Crime Trends Report 2026: Supply Chain Attacks Emerge as Top Global Cyber Threat

Across the META region, Internet and Financial services account for over 80% of phishing activity, highlighting identity compromise as the gateway to cascading supply-chain attacks

DUBAI, UAE, Feb. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Group-IB, a leading creator of cybersecurity technologies to investigate, prevent, and fight digital crime, launched today its High-Tech Crime Trends Report 2026, revealing that supply chain attacks have become the dominant force reshaping the global cyber threat landscape.

This year’s report reveals that cybercrime has shifted decisively away from isolated intrusions toward ecosystem-wide compromise, where attackers exploit trusted vendors, open-source software, SaaS platforms, browser extensions, and managed service providers to gain inherited access to hundreds of downstream organizations.

In META, phishing activity observed by Group-IB in 2025 shows attackers disproportionately targeting high impact sectors, particularly internet services (52.49%), financial institutions (28.50%) and the logistics sector (11.20%). Although phishing often starts with individual users, compromise within these organizations can trigger cascading effects across customers, partners, and connected ecosystems.

The report highlights the growing role of Initial Access Brokers (IABs) in the regional threat landscape. In 2025, Group-IB identified more than 200 cases of corporate access linked to META organizations being publicly advertised for sale, demonstrating strong demand for stolen credentials and footholds. These access points are increasingly used to enable ransomware attacks, espionage campaigns, and large-scale follow-on operations.

Ransomware activity across META was most heavily concentrated in the GCC, which accounted for over 100 reported incidents in 2025. Other affected countries included South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. The most targeted sectors were real estate, financial services, manufacturing, government, and healthcare. The report shows that ransomware groups now operate as industrialized ecosystems, prioritizing upstream access to maximize operational disruption and financial impact.

“Cybercrime is no longer defined by single breaches. It is defined by cascading failures of trust,” said Dmitry Volkov, Chief Executive Officer of Group-IB. “Attackers are industrializing supply chain compromise because it delivers scale, speed, and stealth. A single upstream breach can now ripple across entire industries. Defenders must stop thinking in terms of isolated systems and start securing trust itself, across every relationship, identity, and dependency.”

The High-Tech Crime Trends Report 2026 is powered by intelligence from Group-IB’s Digital Crime Resistance Centers in 11 countries, combining adversary-centric telemetry with real-world investigations and global monitoring of underground cybercriminal ecosystems.

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SOURCE Group-IB