The UAE is ranked sixth internationally as a target of cyber attacks in an analysis by Microsoft.
The US topped the rankings in Microsoft's Digital Defence Report, which monitored cyber crime activity affecting customers from January to June of this year.
Next came Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, the UK and the UAE. India, Japan, Canada, Germany, Australia and the Philippines completed the top 12.
“The findings carry particular relevance for the UAE as the country continues to scale AI adoption across government and industry,” read a summary of the analysis provided to The National.
Microsoft said the data collected in its threat analysis would serve an important function in bolstering teamwork between the company and the UAE in fighting hacks, cyber crime and other digital-based nefarious activities.
“Microsoft, the UAE Cyber Security Council and Core42 announced plans to deploy MDASH, Microsoft’s AI-powered cybersecurity capability, across UAE government entities,” the company stated. It added that the continuing collaboration will help to “prioritise risk and respond to emerging threats with greater speed and scale”.
The UAE was the third-most targeted country by hackers connected to Iran, behind the US and Israel, according to the US technology giant.
Iran's self-imposed internet blackout that lasted until May caused a slight dip in Tehran-sponsored cyber attacks, but Microsoft warned that those attempts had since resumed.
The company pointed out that Iranian cyber actors have the most success when it comes to relatively simplistic attack methods.
“Iranian state-aligned threat actors continue to rely primarily on exploitation of known vulnerabilities, weak authentication and exposed internet-facing systems for initial access, with credential harvesting and phishing as central enablers,” Microsoft's report read.
Yazan Khasawneh, director of cybersecurity at Microsoft in the UAE, highlighted the importance of maintaining cybersecurity amid the rapid expansion of AI use.
“The UAE is entering a phase in which AI is becoming part of the operating model of government and business,” Mr Khasawneh said. He added that it was important for cybersecurity to be “designed into the way organisations adopt AI, manage identities, protect data and maintain continuity from the outset”.
Last month, the UAE's cybersecurity chief Mohamed Al Kuwaiti said the country was continuing to contend with a barrage of daily online threats, with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps behind many attacks.
AI, he explained, was accelerating the pace of cyber attacks. But Dr Al Kuwaiti said the UAE had harnessed cutting-edge technology to “detect, to defend, to disrupt” hacking attempts.
In August, the UAE Cyber Security Council said national teams had detected and contained advanced, organised attacks against the aviation, energy and education sectors before they could disrupt vital systems.
During an interview with The National in Washington last year, Dr Al Kuwaiti said the UAE had long focused on cybersecurity and was committed to becoming a “net exporter of cyber security talent”.
“Our main focus is cyber crime, cyber terrorism and cyber warfare,” Dr Al Kuwaiti added.
