UAE Government Cyber Chief: We Face 50K Cyberattacks Daily

The United Arab Emirates' public sector faces around 50,000 cyberattack efforts every day.

Speaking at the G[P]RC Summit in Dubai recently, Mohammed Al Kuwaiti, head of cybersecurity for the UAE government, said the type of threats run the gamut from port scanning and phishing emails to DDoS attacks and ransomware, affecting every area of government.

He also said that government ministries are working with the private sector to ensure its resilience against such threats, according to local media reports.

With regard to cybersecurity attacks on the private sector, Al Kuwaiti said the numbers could be double or triple the number of threats faced by the public sector, and that the financial sector is "most exposed" to cyberattacks.

The number of cybersecurity offensives faced by businesses in the UAE has increased on annual basis, with one report claiming 87% of companies in UAE have faced different forms of cyber incidents in the past two years. This has led the UAE to form threat intelligence-sharing partnerships with the US Treasury Department and a number of other nations.