United Arab Emirates government’s cyber security chief has said that the Middle East region is currently facing a “cyber pandemic” after a rise in COVID-19 related attacks. On Sunday Mohamed al-Kuwaiti, head of UAE Government Cyber Security said “As we moved into a full online life, we saw a huge increase in many of those attacks,” when talking to a CNBC-moderated panel at the Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference in Dubai.
In 2020 the UAE has seen an “at least 250% increase” in cyberattacks, according to Al Kuwaiti, because the pandemic has forced organizations to reconsider how they work, with malicious actors taking advantage of the increasing use of digital technology and companies’ insecurity as they restructure in order to deal with the pandemic.
