UAE accelerates cyber resilience with AI-driven national security initiatives amidst rising threats

The UAE is intensifying its cyber defence efforts by integrating AI tools, strengthening resilience, and fostering a homegrown cybersecurity workforce to counter escalating threats and position itself as a regional digital hub.

The UAE is pushing cyber resilience as a national priority, with its Cyber Security Council arguing that digital openness and strong protection can coexist. In an interview published by Economy Middle East, Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, head of the council, said the country is refining how government and private-sector operations rooms handle identity controls, incident response and continuity planning, rather than trying to fix structural weaknesses. The broader aim is to keep the UAE near the top of global cybersecurity rankings while ensuring standards are applied consistently across sectors.

That effort comes against a backdrop of intensifying threats. Gulf News reported that the council and CPX’s State of the UAE Cybersecurity Report 2025 identified more than 223,800 assets in the country as potentially exposed to attack, with many critical vulnerabilities left unresolved for years. Gulf Good News also said the council had repelled a wave of AI-enabled attacks on national infrastructure, including ransomware, infiltration and phishing campaigns, while warning of as many as 200,000 attempted breaches a day. The message from Abu Dhabi is that cyber defence must now be treated as frontline national security.

Artificial intelligence sits at the centre of both sides of that contest. Al Kuwaiti said the UAE is using AI-native tools to monitor traffic, user behaviour and industrial systems, while also hardening the data that trains those models to reduce the risk of poisoning or manipulation. The council is pairing automation with human oversight, using analysts to validate alerts and running exercises for synthetic media, misinformation and machine-assisted intrusions. That approach echoes broader assessments that AI can accelerate both attacks and defence, especially around operational technology and critical infrastructure.

The UAE is also trying to make cybersecurity part of its wider economic offer. A 2025 World Economic Forum article described the country’s strategy as a collaborative model involving government, industry and society, designed to strengthen resilience while attracting companies seeking a regional base. The council says the same logic supports data flows, cloud adoption, foreign investment and new technologies, provided critical systems are protected by risk-based regulation, sovereign data rules where needed and close public-private coordination. It is a balancing act, but one the UAE sees as central to its pitch as a trusted digital hub.

Talent remains the long game. Al Kuwaiti said the country is embedding digital skills and cyber awareness in schools, expanding university programmes and backing hands-on initiatives such as cyber ranges, national competitions and schemes including CyberE71, Cyber Pulse, Cyber Sniper and CyberFirst UAE. The council’s argument is that resilience will ultimately depend less on any single platform than on a homegrown workforce able to keep pace with a fast-evolving threat landscape.

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Source: Fuse Wire Services