Ransomware Attacks on Manufacturing in the UAE
Ransomware groups have claimed 8 manufacturing organisations in the United Arab Emirates since 2020, which is 7.1% of all attributed UAE claims. Blacknevas accounts for 1 of them. The earliest claim in this sector was recorded on and the most recent on .
Data as of , drawn from 192 leak-site claims collected by ransomware.live. How this data is collected and filtered.
Which groups claim UAE manufacturing organisations
All groups| Name | Relative volume | Incidents | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blacknevas | 1 | 12.5% | |
| Cicada3301 | 1 | 12.5% | |
| DragonForce | 1 | 12.5% | |
| INC Ransom | 1 | 12.5% | |
| LockBit 3.0 | 1 | 12.5% | |
| Medusa | 1 | 12.5% | |
| RansomHub | 1 | 12.5% | |
| Tengu | 1 | 12.5% | |
| Total | 8 | 100% |
How Manufacturing claims spread across periods
UAE Manufacturing recorded 8 claimed organisations from 8 different ransomware groups, with no group claiming a second manufacturing target.
Manufacturing ranks sixth among UAE sectors with 8 claimed organisations
Manufacturing ranks sixth of 13 UAE sectors, just below the average of 8.6 claims per active sector. Eight distinct groups appear here, one claim each. No ransomware group has claimed a second UAE manufacturing organisation in this dataset.
Eight groups account for 8 Manufacturing claims
Manufacturing shows one claim per group across 8 distinct operations. No ransomware group has claimed a second UAE manufacturing organisation in this dataset. Blacknevas, Cicada3301, DragonForce and INC Ransom each appear once, as do the remaining four.
Manufacturing claims cluster late in the record. The sector saw 1 claim in 2023 and 1 in 2024, then 4 in 2025. The partial year 2026 stands at 2. Half the sector’s total falls in 2025 alone.
What this means for UAE organisations
- Separate plant networks from corporate networks, because manufacturing downtime converts to contractual penalties faster than office downtime does.
- Inventory the equipment that cannot be patched, then compensate with segmentation rather than hoping for a vendor update.
- Map your obligations under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law, which reaches employee and supplier records as well as customer data.
- Rehearse running production without the systems that schedule it, since the recovery question is operational before it is technical.
- Confirm that remote maintenance access used by equipment vendors is time limited and monitored.
- Plan against a generalist attacker rather than a sector specialist, given that 8 groups have appeared once each.
- Verify that design files and process documentation are backed up apart from the systems that normally serve them.
- Agree in advance who can authorise a production halt, since that decision cannot wait for an investigation to finish.
