Digital and Disinformation Threats Against UAE Primarily State-Sponsored, Says Cybersecurity Chief

The UAE faces up to 200,000 cyber attacks daily, primarily state-sponsored, according to the country’s top cyber security official.

Mohamed Al Kuwaiti revealed that between 90,000 and 200,000 breach attempts target the UAE each day, with 71.4 percent of these attacks being state-sponsored. These threats come from 21 active persistent threat groups and 60 hacktivist organizations primarily operating out of Asia, Europe, and South Africa.

“Government administration, financial services, and banking sectors in the UAE are the main focus of many cyber crime attempts,” Al Kuwaiti told the UAE state news agency Wam. The data shows that Asian actors account for approximately 66.7 percent of state-sponsored attacks, while European sources make up 14.3 percent. The remaining threats originate from Middle Eastern or cross-regional actors.

The cyber security chief also expressed growing concern about the rise of deepfake technology and disinformation campaigns designed to “erode public trust” and damage the UAE’s international reputation.

“Regional geopolitical tensions across North Africa, the Gulf, and broader Middle East information spaces have intensified online narratives targeting the UAE,” he explained. “Conflict-driven discourse, diplomatic friction, and AI-enabled disinformation activity have increased rumor propagation and hacktivist mobilization across regional digital ecosystems.”

These comments align with warnings from technology and cybersecurity experts who have noted that previously specialized AI tools have become widely accessible, making it easier for malicious actors to conduct sophisticated disinformation campaigns.

Despite the scale and complexity of these threats, Al Kuwaiti assured that the UAE is countering them with “high efficiency.” This confidence reflects the country’s decade-long focus on prioritizing cyber security infrastructure and capabilities.

In an interview with The National last year, Al Kuwaiti highlighted the UAE’s strategic approach: “Our main focus is cyber crime, cyber terrorism, and cyber warfare,” adding that the country aims to eventually become an “exporter of cyber security talent.”

During a conference in Washington last September, Al Kuwaiti emphasized the importance of partnerships with cyber security and technology firms as a critical component of the UAE’s digital defense strategy. He recited an example where “an alert [of a cyber attack] came to us from a partner, not even from a government,” referring to a “zero-day attack” in 2025 that was successfully thwarted before causing damage.

The UAE government has continued to strengthen its cyber defenses with policy developments. In November, it approved a national encryption policy widely praised as a comprehensive plan to transform the country into a quantum-safe economy.

Mohammed Aboul-Magd, vice president of product at SandboxAQ’s cybersecurity group, commended this initiative, stating: “It’s part of a really small group of countries that are treating this in a proactive way, and that’s so critical right now.”

The UAE’s approach to cybersecurity represents a significant strategic priority in an increasingly digitalized global economy, where cyber threats continue to evolve in sophistication and scale. By combining domestic capability development with international partnerships and forward-looking policies, the country is working to secure its digital infrastructure against an expanding landscape of cyber threats.