When people think about Iraq, what springs to mind is often oil, conflict, or history. But there's a far bigger story unfolding, one that affects not just Iraq, but the entire Middle East. Iraq’s national infrastructure is quietly becoming a key focus for regional energy security, global oil markets, and regional economic stability.

Recently, much attention has been lavished on digital defences , with Al-Sudani opening a shiny new cyber security centre in Baghdad, much needed, but the more traditional, physical / static  side of security and its lack of high-standards, risks leaving infrastructure dangerously exposed.

If Iraq is serious about protecting its future, cyber and physical security must work hand in hand. Otherwise, the consequences could be catastrophic not just for Iraq, but for the world.

Iraq holds the fifth-largest proven oil reserves in the world, Much of that oil flows through key infrastructure points, pipelines snaking across the desert, refineries humming on the outskirts of Baghdad and Basra, giant export terminals like those at Umm Qasr and Al Faw.

And it’s not just oil. Iraq’s electricity grid, water supplies, transport links, ports, and telecommunications are critical to keeping the region stable. Disruptions in Iraqi oil exports can affect global prices, a collapse of its energy network would send shockwaves through Jordan, Syria, Iran, Kuwait, and even as far afield as the USA who now buy more Iraqi Oil than they do Saudi Oil.

Iraqi infrastructure is fast becoming the world’s business.

Recognising this, as above, the Iraqi government has recently made a big play for better cyber protection. In early 2025, it opened the National Cyber Security Centre, a dedicated agency tasked with defending vital infrastructure from digital threats.

It’s a good move. Cyberattacks on energy infrastructure are growing alarmingly frequent around the globe. In 2021, we all saw the chaos that followed the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in the United States – petrol stations empty, prices soaring, panic buying.

Imagine something similar happening to Iraq’s oil fields or export pipelines. The results would be terrible, given Iraq’s already precarious political and economic situation.

The new centre is designed to monitor threats, coordinate incident responses, harden critical systems, and enforce tougher cybersecurity standards across key sectors. There's even talk of launching a ‘national firewall’ similar to measures seen in other Gulf countries.

For Iraq, it’s a giant leap forward. After years of cyber defences being little more than an afterthought, serious investment is finally flowing into the digital domain, but here’s the catch,  physical security Is still in tatters!

While Iraq is getting smarter about cyber threats, the physical security of its national infrastructure,  especially its oil facilities remains dangerously underwhelming.

Across Iraq’s vast southern oil fields, guarding critical sites often falls to low-paid static security teams who are barely trained, poorly equipped, and easily compromised. Many of these guards earn as little as $300 - $500 a month – hardly an incentive for loyalty in a region where corruption runs deep and opportunities for bribery are rife.

There are opportunities for security guards for guards and even police to allow unauthorised access to oil installations. Smuggling, theft, and sabotage aren’t just threats from outside actors, too often, they're facilitated from within, passes to oil fields even require a bribe when you have a legitimate contract! The whole system is build on corruption.

In some locations, fences are broken, surveillance cameras are either non-functional or easily bypassed, and there are few access controls that cannot be bypassed in someway.

So, the issue remains, that while Iraq can have world-class cyber defences scanning for digital breaches, but a bad actor can simply drive up to a pipeline, cut into it, or plant a bomb because the guard on duty is asleep or has been bought off, what’s the point?

Cyber defence and physical protection must operate together, or neither will succeed.

What Iraq needs is a full "defence in depth" approach to protecting its critical infrastructure. That means multiple layers of security, working across both the digital and physical realms.

In the cyber world, that means firewalls, endpoint protection, network segmentation, real-time monitoring, regular security audits, and incident response plans. Iraq is making real strides here.

But on the physical side, it means:

Professionalised security teams that are paid a living wage, Modern surveillance systems, Strict access control measures, biometric scanning, vehicle barriers and tracking of the field pass system to negate the bribes required and regular red teaming exercises to simulate attacks and find weaknesses.

There also needs to be awareness campaigns and coordination between physical and cyber teams so that, for example, a cyberattack on a system immediately triggers extra on-the-ground patrols.

It sounds obvious. Yet in Iraq today, the two worlds are still alarmingly disconnected.

Cyber teams operate in gleaming new offices in Baghdad, while out in the oil fields, security guards nap under battered tin shelters or wave through trucks without even checking paperwork, or worse, demanding you pay them even if you have the correct paperwork

Until those two realities are brought together, Iraq’s critical infrastructure remains perilously vulnerable and let’s be brutally honest, an attack on Iraq’s oil fields would not stay an Iraqi problem for long.

The Middle East already sits on edge. Any disruption in oil supplies could trigger price spikes, stoke inflation, deepen global economic troubles, and potentially spark conflicts.

Energy markets today are jittery enough, with ongoing tensions in Ukraine, sanctions on Iran, the Trump effect and instability in the Red Sea. A major incident in Iraq could be the domino that sets off a chain reaction across global energy markets.

With Iraq now trying to position itself as a key player in regional reconstruction, linking oil and gas exports to Syria, Jordan, Turkey, and beyond, security needs to step up!

The world needs Iraq’s infrastructure to be safe. That means not just locking the front door digitally, but making sure no one can stroll through the back gate physically.