For the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an aggressive push for a extra digitized financial system attracted loads of curiosity and subsequent funding — but additionally made it a chief candidate for relentless cyberattacks.
With almost 50,000 cyberattacks reportedly thwarted day by 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 chief candidate for cyberattacks all around the world, and in 2023 the UAE reached out to different international locations to assist bolster its defenses on this sector. Particularly, its partnership with the US Treasury Division permits the 2 international locations to share the newest cybersecurity threats affecting the monetary providers sector and develop a contingency plan accordingly.
Related safety partnerships with Morocco and Chad have additionally been established, additional strengthening digital ties between the international locations. Dubai, particularly, has bold plans to grow to be 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 methods in place to attenuate 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 subject of AI. In a white paper printed 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 matter this 12 months for varied international locations within the Center East, with generative AI (GenAI) particularly holding probably the most promise. The GenAI business is anticipated 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 sort of monetary outlook on the road, international locations are aggressively transferring ahead with AI initiatives 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 comprehend its true potential.
“2023 has been a transformative 12 months within the UAE, with rising applied sciences equivalent 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 with a purpose 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 family members, mates, or colleagues with a purpose to steal data.
Chester Wisniewski, director international subject CTO at Sophos, says that 2024’s risk 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 effective 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 methods which can be nonetheless in operation or an absence of expert professionals who’re well-versed in newer applied sciences, most organizations may have averted a important cyberattack if these have been addressed.
Trellix’s “Thoughts of the CISO: Behind the Breach” report reveals the hurt this expertise hole may cause — almost 64% of respondents within the UAE mentioned that an assault was missed both as a result of an absence of sources or the shortage of abilities to take care of a fancy incident in a well timed method.
