THREAT LANDSCAPE

heck Point Research, the threat

Software Technologies, has revealed that organisations worldwide experienced an average of 2,803 cyberattacks per week in September 2026, representing a 16 % increase month on month and a 48 % rise year on year.

In the UAE, organisations faced an average of 2,521 weekly cyberattacks, an increase of 47 % compared with September 2025, reflecting sustained pressure on the country’ s digital infrastructure.

The findings highlight an increasingly complex threat landscape characterised by rising attack volumes, phishing activity, ransomware incidents and growing exposure of sensitive enterprise information through generative AI applications.

“ September’ s data shows cyber risk increasing in both volume and breadth,” said Omer Dembinsky, Data Research Manager at Check Point Research.“ 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. They need prevention-first protection that combines visibility, control and automation across network, cloud, endpoint, email and AI usage to stop threats before they disrupt operations or expose sensitive information.”

Education remained the most targeted sector globally, experiencing an average of 6,656 weekly attacks per organisation, up 59 % year on year. Telecommunications followed with 3,483 attacks, while government organisations recorded 3,443.

Regionally, Latin America experienced the highest attack volumes, averaging 3,813 weekly attacks per organisation, followed by Africa at 3,701 and Asia-Pacific at 3,593. Europe recorded the fastest annual growth, with attacks increasing by 61 %.

The report also identified significant security risks associated with enterprise generative AI adoption. Globally, one in every 39 GenAI prompts presented a high risk of sensitive data leakage, affecting 89 % of organisations regularly using these tools. followed by financial data at 70 %, legal and regulatory information at 68 %, employee and HR data at 62 % and personally identifiable information at 60 %.

Business services recorded the highest proportion of high-risk prompts at 4.9 %, followed by financial services at 4.1 % and healthcare at 3.5 %.

Meanwhile, phishing remained a significant attack vector. One in every 91 emails was classified as phishing during September, compared with one in 112 in August. Malicious links accounted for 81 % of phishing emails, while attachments represented 11 %.

Ransomware activity also increased substantially, with 824 reported attacks globally, representing a 53 % rise year on year.

Business services accounted for 31.3 % of reported ransomware victims, followed by consumer goods and services at 15.2 % and industrial manufacturing at 11 %.

North America recorded 46 % of reported ransomware incidents, followed by Europe at 25 % and Asia-Pacific at 17 %.

Omer Dembinsky, Data Research Manager at Check Point Research

A further 14 % of prompts contained potentially sensitive information. Employees generated an average of 131 prompts during September, while organisations used an average of eight GenAI tools.

Network and IT infrastructure information appeared in prompts at 71 % of organisations,

The Gentlemen emerged as the most prevalent ransomware group, responsible for 13 % of published attacks, followed by Qilin at 9 % and Akira at 5 %. Another 80 extortion groups also reported attacks during September.

Check Point Research emphasised the importance of prevention-first cybersecurity strategies, combining AI-powered protection, threat intelligence and consistent governance to reduce exposure across networks, cloud environments, endpoints and enterprise AI systems.

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