Does the UAE’s Digital Leadership Come With a Trade-Off: Greater Exposure to Attacks?

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Cyberattacks on the UAE’s digital systems continue to increase in both scale and sophistication. In 2025, the country experienced a notable increase in activity associated with dark-web networks, reinforcing its position as one of the world’s most frequently targeted markets. The trend highlights a broader reality: as the UAE accelerates its digital transformation, adversaries are evolving in parallel, pressuring organisations to rethink how resilience is built into fast-growing digital ecosystems. 

This rise wasn’t abstract. This resulted in tangible breaches across government services, financial institutions, and airlines, exposing sensitive data, including passports, Emirates IDs, and corporate records. Many of these datasets later surfaced on underground forums, selling for prices ranging from $257 to $50,000, according to CYFIRMA.

One of the most significant incidents involved a reported leak of 1.94 terabytes of data connected to Dubai’s Ports, Customs, and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC), compromising identification records. Dubai Municipality systems were also compromised, with internal JIRA tickets and Confluence documents made available online. The financial sector was heavily affected, with databases from Emirates NBD and Commercial Bank of Dubai allegedly leaked, along with records from insurance platforms such as Lookinsure.

Airline and digital service providers were also targeted. Emirates Airlines reportedly saw data linked to more than 600,000 passengers exposed, while Digital Dubai Pulse experienced a breach involving around 22,000 records, although the authenticity of these incidents remains unverified.

Critical Sectors in the Crosshairs

Experts say that the UAE’s advanced digital infrastructure, while a national strength, also presents a broader attack surface for cyber adversaries.

“The UAE’s digital leadership makes it both a regional epicenter of innovation and an emerging target for cybercrime,” says Morey Haber, Chief Security Advisor at BeyondTrust, an identity management company. “Critical infrastructure sectors like energy, aviation, and financial services face constant threats due to their geopolitical and economic importance. Rapid cloud adoption and smart city initiatives have expanded the digital footprint faster than traditional governance and auditing processes can keep up.”

Haber adds that sectors such as healthcare and logistics are also becoming attractive targets as attackers exploit connected devices, legacy systems, and weak segmentation between operational and information technology networks.

The UAE’s rapid digital expansion is underscored by World Bank data, which shows that internet penetration reached 100% of the population in 2023, one of the highest rates globally. This widespread connectivity, while enabling economic growth, also broadens potential entry points for cyber threats.

AI-Driven Threats Reshape The Battlefield

As the UAE deepens its investment in AI to power economic diversification, attackers are leveraging the same technology to increase the speed and precision of their operations.

“The effectiveness of defenses against AI-driven attacks is best described as a contested and rapidly escalating arms race,” says Ivan Milenković, Vice President of Cyber Risk Technology, EMEA, at Qualys. “While UAE enterprises are leaders in adopting defensive AI, integrating it into 91% of their cybersecurity strategies, offensive innovation is evolving just as fast. Attackers are using AI to generate realistic phishing campaigns, deepfakes, and adaptive malware that bypass traditional detection systems.”

AI-enhanced DDoS attacks now adjust their tactics during an assault, making them harder to counter. Milenkovic explains that defenders typically use AI to identify known threats more efficiently, while attackers use it to create entirely new ones, creating a persistent imbalance in the cyber battlefield.

Santiago Pontiroli, Lead TRU Researcher at Acronis, shares a similar perspective, saying defenses are improving, but attackers are innovating faster. “We’re already seeing AI being used to automate lateral movement and customize ransomware payloads,” he adds. “Many UAE organizations still rely on static detection and manual triage, which are not sufficient against AI-driven threats.”

Response Readiness Remains Uneven

Despite the UAE’s strong cybersecurity governance framework and the presence of national bodies such as the UAE Cybersecurity Council and the Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), response capabilities vary across industries.

“Response maturity is improving, but results differ widely between organizations,” Haber says. “Leading financial and telecom providers use automated playbooks and round-the-clock response teams, but mid-sized firms often struggle with delayed forensics and visibility due to limited budgets and staffing.”

Milenkovic describes a growing gap between the speed of attacks and the ability to respond. “Modern intrusions operate at machine speed,” he explains. “Data exfiltration can occur within an hour of compromise, while the global average time to identify and contain a breach is still more than 250 days.”

Pontiroli notes that many organizations still focus on prevention rather than recovery and often detect breaches only after their data appears on the dark web.

Investment and Innovation Lag Behind Demand

While the UAE continues to post strong economic growth, investment in cybersecurity remains uneven compared with other digital sectors.

“Cybersecurity is a top priority for entrepreneurs and investors in the UAE, but the model differs from traditional high-growth sectors,” says Sarfaraz Kazi, Co-Founder and CTO of Hive Pro, a cyber security company specializing in Threat Exposure Management. “The government plays a central role as a market-maker through sovereign funds, national acquisitions, and accelerators such as CyberE71 that focus on building domestic capability.”

Although enterprises are increasing their cybersecurity budgets, venture capital has yet to keep pace. MAGNiTT UAE Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 shows that UAE startups raised approximately $640 million in the first half of 2025, with the majority of funding going to fintech, insurtech, and AI ventures, rather than security ventures. 

Kazi notes that this highlights a regional investment gap, where spending is still driven by compliance instead of proactive threat management.

A Call For Zero Trust And Collaboration

As cyber threats continue to evolve, experts agree that organizations must move from perimeter-based defense models to identity-centric zero-trust architectures.

“The next cyber frontier requires flexibility, not perimeter management,” says Haber. “Organizations must adopt least-privilege access controls, segment operational and information networks, and use AI-assisted anomaly detection with continuous validation.”

Milenkovic emphasizes that the government and private sectors need to focus on practical implementation rather than policy alone, adding that initiatives such as Cyber Sniper, a comprehensive cybersecurity training programme for UAE government employees, and the Crystal Ball, a program aimed to design, deploy and enable regional intelligence enhancement between UAE and Israel, are examples of efforts that combine intelligence sharing and talent development.

Kazi highlights the importance of integrating cybersecurity into corporate culture.

“Cyber resilience must become cultural,” he says. “Organizations should focus on continuous threat exposure management, behavior-based training, and treating cybersecurity as a board-level responsibility rather than a compliance exercise.”

Pontiroli adds that collaboration remains the UAE’s strongest line of defense.

“The UAE’s cyber ecosystem is most effective when organizations share threat intelligence rather than operate in isolation,” he says. “Regional cooperation through information-sharing centers and public-private partnerships is essential to stay ahead of adversaries.”