UAE faces cyberthreat surge as AI reshapes the security landscape

Cyberattacks against the UAE have surged from a baseline of 200,000 to 300,000 a day to more than 800,000 during recent regional conflict

Smart home devices, CCTV systems, smartphones and even robotic vacuum cleaners have been drawn into a surge of cyberattacks against the UAE, with criminals using compromised Internet of Things (IoT) devices to spread fear as much as to cause direct damage, Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government, said at the third edition of FutureSec conference.

Cyberattacks against the UAE have surged from a baseline of 200,000 to 300,000 a day to more than 800,000 during the recent regional conflict, Al Kuwaiti said.

“We continue in seeing many of those things, despite the ceasefire here or there, or despite many of those negotiations happening... in the cyber warfare, things are really happening in a continuous manner,” he said in his keynote address.

Al Kuwaiti said artificial intelligence is now present in almost every category of cyberattack, ranging from misinformation and disinformation campaigns on social media to phishing, spear-phishing and impersonation attempts targeting entities and individuals.

He said the nature of attacks has also shifted during the recent crisis, moving beyond traditional ransomware and data theft towards more destructive tactics. Attackers deployed "wiper" malware designed to delete and erase data outright, rather than steal it for extortion or blackmail, he said.

Critical infrastructure was a primary target, including the energy, electricity, water, desalination and healthcare sectors, Al Kuwaiti said, describing a convergence of cybercrime, cyber warfare and cyber terrorism aimed at disrupting essential services. He noted that other countries faced similar attacks during the same period, though the UAE was often at the forefront.

Al Kuwaiti said the UAE’s cybersecurity framework has now been adopted by more than 25 countries worldwide, pointing to it as evidence of the UAE's model for resilience through public-private partnership and community engagement.

He also confirmed that the UAE launched its post-quantum cybersecurity strategy around a year and a half ago, and has since migrated between 10 and 15 per cent of its critical infrastructure to post-quantum-secure systems.

Further details on the UAE's cybersecurity roadmap will be unveiled at an upcoming industry event in the coming weeks, Al Kuwaiti said, reiterating that public awareness and cross-sector cooperation remain central to national defence.