UAE Ranks Sixth Globally in Cyber Threats Amid AI Adoption Push

The UAE has emerged as one of the top targets for cyber threats, ranking sixth internationally in Microsoft's Digital Defence Report. The report monitored cybercrime activity affecting customers from January to June this year and found that the US topped the rankings, followed by Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, the UK, and the UAE.

Iranian state-aligned threat actors were particularly active, with 22% of attacks attributed to Tehran-sponsored hackers. The UAE was the third-most targeted country by these hackers, behind the US and Israel. Microsoft warned that Iranian cyberactors have had success with relatively simplistic attack methods, such as exploiting known vulnerabilities and weak authentication.

The report's findings carry particular relevance for the UAE, which is scaling up AI adoption across government and industry. Yazan Khasawneh, director of cybersecurity at Microsoft in the UAE, highlighted the importance of maintaining cybersecurity amid this expansion. He emphasized that it's crucial to design cybersecurity into the way organisations adopt AI.