UAE foils AI-powered ‘terrorist cyber attacks’ on vital sectors

The United Arab Emirates 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”. They 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.

Read more at The National