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 primary candidate for relentless cyberattacks.
With almost 50,000 cyberattacks reportedly thwarted each day, the UAE has spent the final 12 months strengthening its digital borders and tapping into key partnerships to stay one step forward of attackers.
Hitting the Banks
The monetary sector is a primary 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. Specifically, its partnership with the US Treasury Division permits the 2 nations to share the most recent cybersecurity threats affecting the monetary companies sector and develop a contingency plan accordingly.
Comparable safety partnerships with Morocco and Chad have additionally been established, additional strengthening digital ties between the nations. Dubai, specifically, has bold plans to change 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 discipline 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
The truth is, AI has been a sizzling subject this 12 months for numerous nations within the Center East, with generative AI (GenAI) specifically holding probably the most promise. The GenAI trade is predicted to be round $23.5 billion yearly by 2030 within the Arab Gulf area, in keeping with Technique&, whereas analysis by Gartner discovered 45% of executives are testing GenAI.
With that type of monetary outlook on the road, nations are aggressively transferring ahead with AI initiatives throughout quite a lot of makes use of, from knowledge evaluation and menace 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 understand its true potential.
“2023 has been a transformative 12 months within the UAE, with rising applied sciences corresponding 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 have to undertake such emergent applied sciences in an effort 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 threat and return. Cybercriminals are more and more utilizing AI instruments for spoofing strategies, producing phishing emails that mimic relations, mates, or colleagues in an effort to steal data.
Chester Wisniewski, director world discipline CTO at Sophos, says that 2024’s menace panorama will look rather a lot 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.
Consultants say whereas AI adoption is an efficient speaking level for the UAE in 2024, the nation nonetheless wants to handle a persistent expertise hole that exists in lots of organizations. Whether or not stemming from outdated legacy programs which might be nonetheless in operation or a scarcity of expert professionals who’re well-versed in newer applied sciences, most organizations might have prevented a essential cyberattack if these have been addressed.
Trellix’s “Thoughts of the CISO: Behind the Breach” report reveals the hurt this expertise hole could cause — almost 64% of respondents within the UAE stated that an assault was missed both attributable to a scarcity of sources or the dearth of abilities to cope with a posh incident in a well timed method.
