For the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an aggressive push for a extra digitized economic system attracted loads of curiosity and subsequent funding — but additionally made it a first-rate candidate for relentless cyberattacks.
With practically 50,000 cyberattacks reportedly thwarted day by day, the UAE has spent the final yr strengthening its digital borders and tapping into key partnerships to stay one step forward of attackers.
Hitting the Banks
The monetary sector is a first-rate candidate for cyberattacks everywhere in the world, and in 2023 the UAE reached out to different nations to assist bolster its defenses on this sector. Particularly, its partnership with the US Treasury Division permits the 2 nations to share the newest cybersecurity threats affecting the monetary companies sector and develop a contingency plan accordingly.
Related safety partnerships with Morocco and Chad have additionally been established, additional strengthening digital ties between the nations. Dubai, particularly, has bold plans to develop into the worldwide chief in synthetic intelligence (AI) by 2031 — a feat that brings with it loads of alternatives and digital dangers.
However safety is one thing that the UAE has prioritized, with a powerful push to have efficient insurance policies and programs in place to reduce cyberattacks. Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, head of cybersecurity for the UAE Authorities, was a number one voice in advocating for extra expert cybersecurity expertise within the nation, particularly within the area of AI. In a white paper revealed with CPX Holding, Al Kuwaiti highlighted the dramatic progress that AI skilled in 2023, and the way AI is poised to be a pivotal instrument for — each protection and assaults — within the nation’s safety panorama.
Transformative Applied sciences
In reality, AI has been a sizzling subject this yr for varied nations within the Center East, with generative AI (GenAI) particularly holding probably the most promise. The GenAI trade is anticipated to be round $23.5 billion yearly by 2030 within the Arab Gulf area, in response to Technique&, whereas analysis by Gartner discovered 45% of executives are testing GenAI.
With that form of monetary outlook on the road, nations are aggressively shifting ahead with AI tasks throughout a wide range of makes use of, from knowledge evaluation and risk detection to customer support. Sujoy Banerjee, affiliate director of ManageEngine, echoes the significance of AI within the area, and the way the UAE was one of many first to appreciate its true potential.
“2023 has been a transformative yr within the UAE, with rising applied sciences similar to AI and ML discovering ft and taking cost particularly from the cybersecurity entrance,” Banerjee says. “Companies within the Center East have acknowledged its worth and must undertake such emergent applied sciences so as to unlock their enterprise potential, which additionally assist improve their productiveness, safety, effectivity, aggressive edge, in addition to meet the evolving wants of the client.”
The takeaway from 2023 for the UAE is that with the adoption of AI, there are equal quantities of danger and return. Cybercriminals are more and more utilizing AI instruments for spoofing strategies, producing phishing emails that mimic relations, mates, or colleagues so as to steal data.
Chester Wisniewski, director world area CTO at Sophos, says that 2024’s risk panorama will look loads like 2023 however with hackers gaining extra environment friendly methods to breach into networks, both by exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities or utilizing stolen credentials to achieve entry to victims’ networks.
Specialists say whereas AI adoption is an efficient speaking level for the UAE in 2024, the nation nonetheless wants to deal with a persistent expertise hole that exists in lots of organizations. Whether or not stemming from outdated legacy programs which can be nonetheless in operation or a scarcity of expert professionals who’re well-versed in newer applied sciences, most organizations might have prevented a important cyberattack if these have been addressed.
Trellix’s “Thoughts of the CISO: Behind the Breach” report exhibits the hurt this expertise hole may cause — practically 64% of respondents within the UAE stated that an assault was missed both resulting from a scarcity of sources or the dearth of abilities to take care of a fancy incident in a well timed method.
