Cyberattacks Target Morocco’s Europe–Africa Data Link

Morocco’s role as a digital link between African and European networks is drawing more cross-border cyber threats, Mastercard said while presenting a white paper on 12 October.

Shabir Ahmed, senior vice-president and customer solutions centre lead for Africa at Mastercard, discussed the risk at the launch of Africa’s Digital Defense Race. “The way we see Morocco is that it is a market sitting in the north of Africa that is digitally connected to a lot of the European markets,” he said. “The country has seen a lot of threats on public institutions and high-profile breaches.”

ITWeb Africa reported that Morocco’s main exposure is not domestic retail banking or mobile money fraud. Organised groups target data moving between North Africa and Europe. About 75% of regional attacks are run by professional crime syndicates and advanced hackers, the paper says.

Figures from the white paper, as reported by ITWeb Africa:

• Cyber incidents across Africa rose 421% between 2016 and 2025. Over the same period, e-commerce grew more than fivefold and mobile money use nearly sixfold.
• Public institutions, technology providers and financial services account for 44% of incidents in Africa’s largest economies.
• Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are 95% of registered firms in Africa and generate half of its GDP. They spend an average of $23 per employee on cybersecurity, against $189 at large corporations.
• Africa has 200,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs.

Citing ResearchGate, the paper puts SMEs at 93% of active companies in Morocco. Citing Mordor Intelligence, it says larger firms held 71.8% of Morocco’s cybersecurity market revenue in 2025.

Mastercard opened its Africa Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Johannesburg in June 2026, starting in South Africa and Nigeria. Its press release lists an Africa-focused threat intelligence feed from Recorded Future, a Mastercard company, and a first-year risk analysis for up to 50 organisations.

“As threats become more sophisticated and coordinated, our response has to be just as coordinated,” Ahmed said. He called for practical training over standard academic qualifications.