The United Arab Emirates said it thwarted a series of AI-backed cyberattacks and warned of a “qualitative shift” in the methods used by terrorist groups it didn’t identify.
The assaults on the UAE’s digital infrastructure and “vital sectors” included attempts to infiltrate networks, deploy ransomware and conduct systematic phishing campaigns, the state-run WAM news agency reported late Saturday, citing the UAE Cybersecurity Council.
Authorities didn’t say how many attacks there’d been or when exactly they happened. The incidents “involved the exploitation of artificial-intelligence technologies to develop sophisticated offensive tools” showing terrorists’ “ability to harness modern technologies to carry out digital attacks,” WAM said.
The council on Feb. 18 said that 128 “confirmed cyber threat incidents” had targeted entities in the UAE so far in 2026, including ransomware attacks, government breaches and data leaks or breach incidents. It named government administration, financial services and banking as among the most targeted sectors.
Photograph: A person types at a backlit keyboard arranged in Danbury, U.K., on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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