Israel Second in Cyberattack Targets, Iran Main Driver

The latest Microsoft cyber defense report reveals that Israel was the second most targeted country for cyberattacks in 2025-2026, accounting for 7.6% of global cyber threat activity.

This surpasses other countries such as Ukraine (4.8%) and Taiwan (3.9%), but trails behind only the United States which accounted for 25.5% of all measured global cyber threat activity.

The report highlights Iran as the primary state-backed driver of cyber operations targeting Israel, with Iranian actors deploying multi-layered campaigns against Israel and regional neighbors during periods of heightened regional tension.

Ransomware attacks targeting Israeli organizations also rose significantly, increasing by 21% year-over-year, with Israel's share of globally affected activity rising from 19% to 23%

The report notes that threat actors are maintaining longer dwell times undetected within victim networks and state-sponsored groups increasingly rely on pre-acquired access.