DUBAI — Gulf states are accelerating investments in operational resilience as the cyber fallout from the US-Iran war reshapes the regional threat landscape. Daily cyberattack attempts against the UAE surged from roughly 200,000 to 700,000 in the months following the February 28 outbreak of hostilities, placing critical digital infrastructure under sustained pressure.
Last week, the UAE Cyber Security Council confirmed a wave of sophisticated attacks targeting the nation's financial sector. All were thwarted. Officials noted that adversaries are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to develop advanced techniques, a development that mirrors warnings from regional cybersecurity firms.
A report from Help AG, the security arm of UAE telecom operator e&, found that AI has enabled attackers to compress the attack lifecycle dramatically. Breaches observed in the first quarter of 2026 were completed 65% faster than before, with some causing damage within 40 hours of initial access. The Middle East faces the same pattern as global networks, the firm noted, but under higher exposure intensity.
The economic costs are substantial. IBM data pegged the average cost of a data breach in the Middle East at $7.29 million in 2025, far exceeding the $4.44 million global average. Gartner projects information security spending across MENA will reach $4.07 billion in 2026, a 10.1% annual increase.
Gulf Cooperation Council states are moving to protect financial services, energy, logistics, and government systems by embedding cybersecurity directly into infrastructure planning. Sovereign cloud environments, which keep data and metadata within national jurisdictions, are becoming core design requirements rather than optional upgrades.
“Organizations today need security that is continuously adaptive, locally aligned and designed to protect critical infrastructure and citizen data in an AI-driven environment,” said Abdulla Ebrahim Al Ahmed, chief government relations officer at e& UAE.
Aleksandar Valjarevic, acting CEO of Help AG, said the shift now requires systems that operate continuously at machine speed in direct alignment with national resilience priorities. Collaborative security models are also expanding across the GCC, particularly within government networks, as the region confronts the new tempo of state-linked cyber aggression.