Dubai, UAE, 03 August 2026 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) released its 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report, revealing that the average cost of a data breach for organizations in the Middle East reached $8 million.
According to the study, the three leading factors increasing the cost of data breaches for Middle East businesses were mismanaged secrets and keys, excessive privileges and poor role management, and an inability to prioritize threats. By contrast, encryption, a DevSecOps approach and endpoint detection and response tools were the leading factors associated with lower breach costs.
Among malicious breaches, 26% were AI-enabled, with another 11% of respondents not being able to confirm if attackers leveraged AI. Organizations with extensive use of AI and security automation recorded average breach costs more than $3 million lower than organizations that did not use these capabilities, yet 23% had still not adopted them.
Lost business remained the largest cost category in the region in 2026, averaging $3.57 million per breach. This was followed by post-breach response costs at $2.17 million, detection and escalation at $1.9 million and notification at $0.36 million. These figures underscore the continued financial strain organizations face across the entire breach lifecycle, from discovery to containment.
The financial and technology sectors recorded the highest average breach costs, at $10.67 million each, followed by the industrial sector at $9.6 million.
“As the number of cybercriminals harnessing the power of AI for malicious purposes rises, attacks are becoming faster and cheaper to launch, while breaches keep getting more expensive to find and fix. This growing imbalance is fundamentally changing the economics of cyber risk. Companies must invest in advanced threat detection and response technologies using AI and automation to stay ahead of emerging risks,” said Saad Toma, General Manager of IBM Middle East and Africa.
Other key findings in the 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report for the Middle East include:
Conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored and analyzed by IBM, the 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report analyzed real-world data breaches experienced by 602 organizations globally, including organizations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, between March 2025 and February 2026.
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