Mastercard reports rise in cyberattacks in Eastern Europe, with Ukraine among main targets

Mastercard has released the first edition of the Cyber Pulse report, providing a comprehensive overview of the cyber threat landscape across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) over the past year. The findings indicate that cybercrime activity increased in early 2026 amid ongoing geopolitical instability.

Source: Mastercard

Details: According to the report, the Middle East has been the most frequent target of cyberattacks over the past 12 months, followed by Eastern Europe. Ukraine has consistently ranked among the countries most frequently targeted by cybercriminals.

Mastercard said that 71% of all cyberattacks in the EEMEA region were aimed at financial gain or disrupting the operations of organisations and systems, underscoring the need to strengthen cyber resilience across all sectors.

Quote from Inga Andreeva, General Manager of Mastercard in Ukraine and Moldova: "Cyber resilience has always been a priority for Mastercard in Ukraine – both in our collaboration with the government and business, and in our broader efforts to support the country's digital economy. Cybersecurity is one of the key areas of our strategic cooperation with the National Bank of Ukraine under the signed Memorandum of Understanding, as well as within the framework of our digital partnership with the Ukrainian government. This reflects our shared mission to strengthen cybersecurity and enhance the resilience of the financial sector."

More details: The main targets for attackers are business systems, customer information and physical infrastructure, which account for 66% of all attacks. The most common objectives are to disrupt organisations' operations, carry out fraud or damage physical infrastructure.

Furthermore, across the region, the public, technology and financial sectors account for 44% of cyberattacks across all industries. These sectors attract particular attention due to the concentration of valuable data and their critical role in the functioning of the economy and digital systems.

Separately, the Mastercard report highlights common attack methods, including malware, ransomware and email-based social engineering. In some countries, baseline cybersecurity levels remain relatively high, but application security and web encryption consistently rank among the areas requiring improvement.

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