The UAE has foiled a series of cyber attacks on vital infrastructure, the Cyber Security Council said this weekend.
The authority said they were “organised cyber attacks of a terrorist nature” but released few other details, including the precise targets.
The attacks “included attempts to infiltrate networks, deploy ransomware and conduct systematic phishing campaigns targeting national platforms”.
It involved “the exploitation of artificial intelligence technologies to develop sophisticated offensive tools, reflecting a qualitative shift in the methods employed by terrorist groups and their ability to harness modern technologies”.
The statement came days after the council's head, Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, said there are between 90,000 to 200,000 breach attempts focused on the UAE “every single day” – many of them “state-sponsored”.
He said the state has invested in major defensive systems to protect public and private infrastructure.
“Regional geopolitical tension across North Africa, the Gulf and broader Middle East information spaces have intensified online narratives targeting the UAE,” Dr Al Kuwaiti said last week.
“Conflict-driven discourse, diplomatic friction, and AI-enabled disinformation activity have increased rumour propagation and hacktivist mobilisation across regional digital ecosystems.”
Asia accounts for about 66.7 per cent of state-sponsored actor origins and Europe 14.3 per cent, while Middle East or cross-regional actors make up the remainder, Wam reported, without specifying countries.
Western states have long singled out Russia, China, North Korea and Iran as the 'Big 4' of state-sponsored cyber attacks, which they deny.
