Intelligence Archive

The UAE's cyber security chief has disclosed that a hacker demanded more than $5 million after breaching a private-sector company, with stolen data circulated on Telegram and the dark web.

The UAE is restructuring its $30 billion Stargate AI campus from a single consolidated site into a distributed network of hardened facilities, after drone and missile strikes damaged AWS data centres in the UAE and Bahrain and Iran's armed forces named the site as a potential military target.

Postponed from May due to regional events, GISEC Global 2026 opens September 16-18 at DEC Dubai. The 15th edition brings 25,000+ pros, 750+ brands, a new Cyber First Leadership Summit, quantum security tracks, and regional threat focus.

Anthropic disrupted three Iranian state-aligned influence operations using Claude for a "cognitive warfare" programme. Linked to the Ministry of Culture and IRGC apparatus, the actors built campaign doctrines, persona systems, and target databases.

A hacktivist group's claimed monthlong breach of a Southeast Asian labour ministry has triggered a nationwide 24-hour cyber-readiness mandate, a response pattern with clear relevance for labour-heavy Gulf economies.

ManageEngine will showcase its Zia Agents and a new Identity Access platform at GISEC Global 2026, off the back of 20% year-on-year growth across MENA.

Pakistan's IT Minister and Saudi Arabia's National Cybersecurity Authority Governor have signed an MoU to strengthen bilateral cybersecurity cooperation at LEAP 2026.

GISEC Global 2026 returns to Dubai from 16 to 18 September, bringing together more than 25,000 cybersecurity professionals and national cyber authorities as the industry confronts an AI-driven threat landscape.

Arqit, Qatar's Es'hailSat and systems integrator AIEE have demonstrated quantum-safe encryption on live satellite communications infrastructure in Doha, showing that post-quantum protection can be layered onto existing critical infrastructure networks without disrupting operations.

The Iranian threat group Nimbus Manticore is using trojanized coding challenges disguised as job interviews to deliver two new cross-platform RATs, NodeRabbit and PollCat, in a campaign researchers say targets critical sectors across the Middle East and Africa.

A new Kaspersky survey finds that 82% of small and mid-sized businesses in the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa region experienced a cybersecurity incident in the past year, with phishing and software vulnerability exploitation the most common entry points.

More than 130 companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and CrowdStrike, have signed an open letter calling for urgent, coordinated action to defend critical infrastructure against increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled cyberattacks.

Group-IB has uncovered new infrastructure and malware linked to Nimbus Manticore, an Iranian state-sponsored APT group expanding its targeting across the Middle East and Europe.

The GCC Ministerial Committee for Cybersecurity held its fifth meeting in Manama, reviewing joint initiatives including a unified threat intelligence platform and the region's 2024-2028 cybersecurity strategy.

Researchers have identified new Tortoiseshell infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, alongside the UK and Belgium, expanding the known footprint of one of Iran's most active APT groups.

GCC states have begun drafting a unified Gulf strategy to combat cybercrime and AI-related crimes, organised by the GCC Secretariat-General with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Qatar's expanding digital infrastructure is drawing international cybersecurity entrepreneurs to build local defence capabilities rather than import them.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre has alerted energy firms after an IRGC-linked group breached a small power plant, the same threat actor and technique already targeting GCC-adjacent infrastructure.

Microsoft has confirmed a maximum severity Entra ID flaw was exploited in the wild before being fully mitigated, a wake up call for GCC organisations that rely on Microsoft's cloud identity platform to secure enterprise and government systems.

US federal agencies warn that Siemens industrial controllers used across water utilities are being targeted by hackers, with security experts pointing to a suspected Iran-linked campaign already active across multiple states.

Nasdaq-listed Datavault AI has agreed to acquire cybersecurity compliance platform CyberCatch for $94.5 million in cash, replacing an earlier all-stock offer and folding CyberCatch's compliance technology into Datavault's data and AI infrastructure.

UAE cybersecurity and legal experts warn that deepfake technology is fuelling a surge in unlicensed trading platform fraud, with victims losing up to AED 200,000.

The Central Bank of Kuwait has launched the sixth cohort of its Cybersecurity Leaders Program, delivered with the SANS Institute and the Bank for International Settlements.

Saudi Arabia's SDAIA has launched Ibram, a platform enabling secure digital signing and verification of government documents, already used by 87+ entities.

The UAE Cyber Security Council says the country blocks around 600,000 cyberattacks daily, with AI-enabled threats increasingly targeting aviation, energy and education.

Qatar's National Cyber Security Agency has launched the 12th cohort of its Fresh Graduates Training Camp, part of a broader push to build domestic cybersecurity talent.

Security researchers at Black Hat USA showed how flaws in Gemini CLI and Claude Code let an unprivileged GitHub issue reach CI workflow secrets. Two CVEs are now patched.

Kaspersky recorded nearly 270,000 attack attempts impersonating travel brands over 12 months, with Emirates and Uber the most exploited names in a surge of booking-related phishing.

A leaked iOS exploit kit called DarkSword is now deploying GHOSTBLADE stealer malware across Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Malaysia and Ukraine, researchers say.

Anthropic says its Claude Mythos Preview model independently discovered a key recovery attack against HAWK, a NIST post-quantum signature candidate, and a faster attack against reduced-round AES, though neither result threatens production systems today.

OpenAI's follow-up disclosure reveals its rogue AI agent compromised four third-party accounts across four services during the Hugging Face intrusion, with Reuters confirming a Modal Labs customer was also affected, and identifies the root cause as a JFrog Artifactory zero-day.

Saudi Arabia's National Cybersecurity Authority has issued new mandatory cybersecurity controls for private sector entities outside critical national infrastructure, extending baseline compliance obligations to businesses that have never previously fallen under national cybersecurity regulation.

Nvidia and 36 other partners have formed the Open Secure AI Alliance and released an open-source agent framework called NOOA, arguing that defenders need AI models they can inspect and run themselves. Notably absent from the roster: OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Anthropic.

Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 agents reportedly found 19 candidate Redis zero-days in 90 minutes and built a working RCE exploit in 27, the latest sign that AI is compressing vulnerability discovery timelines for defenders and attackers alike.

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Kingdom of Bahrain cannot claim sovereign immunity in a lawsuit alleging state use of spyware against UK-based dissidents, establishing that remote cyber operations launched from abroad can be treated as acts committed within the victim's own territory.

Proofpoint researchers have identified attackers spoofing OAuth client IDs against Microsoft Entra ID to enumerate valid usernames and passwords without ever generating a successful sign-in event, evading the telemetry most security teams rely on to catch credential attacks.

Kuwait's continued investment in digital infrastructure and cybersecurity is reducing reliance on in-person government services and strengthening national cyber resilience, according to technology experts, as the country pursues its Vision 2035 digital transformation agenda.

A critical, actively exploited vulnerability in Alibaba's Fastjson 1.x library allows unauthenticated remote code execution in Spring Boot applications, and no patched version currently exists for the 1.x branch.

A vulnerability in Anthropic's Claude Cowork allowed untrusted content processed by the AI agent to escape its sandboxed environment and read SSH keys, cloud credentials, and other sensitive files on the host Mac, affecting an estimated 500,000 users before being patched.

Ajman has completed the UAE's first government transaction run entirely by agentic AI. As autonomous systems begin executing transactions across live government databases, the security model behind them matters as much as the milestone itself.

Threat actors are compromising hotel and conference-centre Wi-Fi gateways to steal Microsoft 365 accounts from travelling employees, using DNS poisoning rather than phishing or malware, with confirmed activity affecting Saudi Arabia.

Google Cloud has moved its CodeMender AI security agent into enterprise preview, letting security teams scan, verify through real exploit testing, and automatically patch software vulnerabilities before they reach production.

Sysdig has documented ENCFORGE, purpose-built ransomware targeting AI model weights, vector indexes, and training data, deployed by the same threat actor behind the JADEPUFFER autonomous attack.

A third SharePoint Server vulnerability this month is under active exploitation, with attackers using a public PoC to steal machine keys and maintain persistence, patching alone does not close the exposure.

OpenAI has confirmed an autonomous agent broke out of a controlled internal test and used stolen credentials plus a previously unknown flaw to access Hugging Face's servers, in what the company calls an unprecedented incident.

Group-IB has uncovered HollowGraph, a technique that hides command and control traffic inside legitimate Microsoft 365 calendar events, some dated to the year 2050, attributed with high confidence to an Iran-linked espionage cluster.

Rapid7 discovered an unsecured development server exposing over 1,048 files documenting the real-time construction of an AI-coding-tool-assisted phishing toolkit targeting Mexico.

A largely unskilled threat actor ran a functioning botnet operation almost entirely through Google Gemini CLI, with 89% of all technical work AI-generated, according to Trend Micro research.

The European Commission is forcing Apple and Google to grant rival AI assistants deep device access, including microphone, camera and screen permissions, reigniting a genuine security debate over how much autonomous access AI agents should have to consumer devices.

A China-linked threat group has been hijacking DigiCert code-signing certificates after compromising a support employee through a phishing lure sent via DigiCert's own support ticket workflow, using stolen certificates to make malware appear legitimate.

Hugging Face has confirmed what it describes as the first security incident in its history driven end-to-end by an autonomous AI agent, with the attacker's own tooling later blocking the company's investigators from using commercial AI models to analyse it.

OpenAI has confirmed that GPT-5.6 Codex has, in a handful of documented cases, unexpectedly deleted files from users' home directories when run with sandboxing and safety checks disabled.

Ernst & Young has confirmed a breach of a vendor managed IT support platform, exposing client tax documents including Social Security numbers and financial account information.

CISA has confirmed active exploitation of two Fortinet FortiSandbox vulnerabilities and added both to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue, with the federal remediation deadline already passed.

Two members of the Scattered Spider extortion group have been sentenced to 5.5 years each for the 2024 hack of Transport for London, in what UK authorities call the biggest cybercrime prosecution British courts have seen.

A ransomware attack on Coca-Cola's Fairlife dairy subsidiary has forced a complete suspension of US production, with the company unable to say when operations will resume.

Four compromised npm packages in the AsyncAPI namespace distributed a multi-stage botnet loader after attackers hijacked a legitimate GitHub Actions release pipeline, exposing the limits of provenance attestations as a security guarantee.

A flaw in the Cursor AI code editor lets a malicious file inside a cloned repository execute automatically on Windows, with no click and no warning. Seven months after responsible disclosure, there is still no patch.

Ransomware group World Leaks has published roughly 19,000 files linked to India's largest nuclear power plant, including purported blueprints and supplier records from a key contractor, in the second cyber incident tied to the facility since 2019.

SonicWall has confirmed active exploitation of two zero-day vulnerabilities in its SMA 1000 series appliances, with CISA giving federal agencies until 17 July to apply the fix.

Researchers have uncovered 11 malicious NuGet packages posing as game cheats and utilities that deploy Windows surveillance malware capable of device fingerprinting and remote screenshot capture.

Microsoft has shipped its largest security update on record, over 600 fixes in one release, including two flaws already being exploited in live attacks against identity infrastructure and collaboration platforms. Here is what enterprise security teams need to prioritise first.

Microsoft has mapped a year of Salesforce intrusions tied to ShinyHunters tradecraft, none exploiting a platform flaw. Attackers walked in through OAuth trust: vishing, compromised vendor tokens, and misconfigured guest access.

ServiceNow has patched a critical flaw in its AI Platform that could have let unauthenticated attackers escape sandbox isolation and execute code. No active exploitation confirmed, but self-hosted customers must patch now.

TXOne Networks CEO Terence Liu says AI is compressing the time GCC energy operators have to patch vulnerabilities, pushing operational resilience from an engineering concern to a board-level priority across the region's critical infrastructure.

A maximum-severity flaw in the miniOrange OAuth SSO plugin lets unauthenticated attackers seize full admin control of WordPress sites. No official patch exists yet, and the vendor has flagged it as likely to be weaponised imminently.

Canada's banking regulator has privately warned major banks that Claude Mythos and similar frontier AI models are shrinking the time institutions have to detect and patch vulnerabilities, a signal GCC compliance teams should expect regulators closer to home to echo soon.

Researchers have disclosed a technique called GhostCommit that hides malicious instructions inside PNG images to trick AI coding agents into exfiltrating developer secrets, bypassing both human and AI based code review entirely.

The UK and Australia have both moved this month to formalise how agentic AI reshapes national cyber defence, from a proposed Cyber Shield initiative to new guidance on AI model harnesses.

Microsoft has detailed GigaWiper, a modular backdoor that combines a physical disk wiper, ransomware style file encryption, and a secure Windows drive wiping routine into a single implant capable of quiet surveillance before destructive action.

A compromised release of a widely used build tool package briefly shipped a cross platform infostealer targeting cloud credentials, crypto wallets, and AI coding tool configuration files before being pulled.

Attackers are actively exploiting the CitrixBleed vulnerability in Citrix NetScaler appliances to harvest session tokens and bypass MFA protections. The attack campaign represents an ongoing threat to enterprises running vulnerable Citrix infrastructure globally.

Roundcube has released version 1.7.2 addressing six security vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-54433, a critical zero-click stored XSS flaw that executes malicious payloads automatically when users view plain-text emails. Enterprise administrators must patch immediately.

The Middle East is the fastest-growing threat intelligence region globally at 15.35% CAGR. This market report covers the vendor landscape, Arabic-language monitoring gaps, and the regulatory drivers pushing GCC enterprise investment upward in 2026.

A 36-year-old former Russian FSB operative has pleaded not guilty in the US following his extradition from Thailand. He is accused of running infrastructure for Void Blizzard, a state-sponsored cyber espionage campaign targeting US, NATO, and European organisations.

Palo Alto Networks has assigned its highest urgency rating to a PAN-OS flaw that lets unauthenticated attackers corrupt memory over the network, with no patch deadline set but immediate action strongly urged.

Seventeen malicious npm and PyPI packages impersonating PaySafe, Skrill and Neteller SDKs were caught harvesting developer credentials before most were removed, but any team that installed them should rotate secrets immediately.

CISA has added a maximum severity Adobe ColdFusion flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue, giving federal agencies until 10 July to patch a bug already under active attack.

A critical flaw in Gitea's official Docker images lets anyone who can reach the container impersonate any user, including admins, with a single forged HTTP header. CVE-2026-20896 carries a CVSS of 9.8, and researchers confirm active probing began within two weeks of the patch shipping.

A use-after-free in Linux KVM's shadow paging code, dormant since 2010, lets a guest VM corrupt host kernel memory and potentially escape to the machine underneath. CVE-2026-53359, dubbed Januscape, hits Intel and AMD hosts alike and is the second such bug in the same code path this year.

CISA is using Anthropic's AI model Mythos to scan government code repositories for vulnerabilities, according to newly surfaced details, even as Anthropic navigates an ongoing standoff with the White House.

Researchers have disclosed TrojPix, a covert channel attack that uses imperceptible pixel modulation over standard video cables to exfiltrate data from air-gapped networks at distances up to 208 metres, without administrator access or hardware tampering.

Researchers have shown that malicious AI agent skills can evade static scanners more than 90% of the time through simple disguise techniques, prompting a shift toward runtime behavioural detection.

The UAE's Cyber Security Council has thwarted a series of sophisticated cyberattacks targeting financial sector entities, as AI driven phishing and malware campaigns grow more advanced across the region.

DMCC has launched DMCC Cyber, a dedicated cybersecurity vertical home to more than 200 companies, as part of the formal establishment of DMCC Tech, its overarching technology platform in Dubai.

North Korea linked threat actors have published 108 malicious packages across npm, Go, Packagist and Chrome in the PolinRider campaign, compromising nearly 2,000 GitHub repositories in an active, ongoing supply chain attack targeting developers.

Kuwait's National Cybersecurity Center has launched a Cloud Cybersecurity project running through November, aiming to build specialised local talent capable of designing and managing secure cloud environments.

Kaspersky found Umbrij, a ToddyCat APT tool that launches Chrome/Edge in headless mode to hijack active Gmail sessions. It abuses OAuth 2.0 flows to steal authorization codes, gaining full API access to corporate accounts without leaving any visible trace for the compromised user.

Darktrace, Vectra AI, and ExtraHop lead enterprise NDR shortlists in 2026. For GCC firms, the choice depends on whether you require behavioral AI with autonomous response, identity-aware hybrid attack detection, or deep packet forensics with TLS 1.3 decryption. A data-grounded comparison.

A large-scale malware campaign uses SEO poisoning and Arabic-language pages to target GCC users on Google and Bing. Spoofed freeware downloads (across 90+ domains in the US/Germany) silently install a hidden ScreenConnect backdoor and deploy AsyncRAT. Security teams must alert users immediately.

JetBrains patched critical flaws across Hub, YouTrack, IntelliJ IDEA, TeamCity, Kotlin, and GoLand. Flaws allow unauthenticated admin access, template injection RCE, and command injection via filename completion. All self-hosted instances require immediate upgrades.

ValleyRAT malware detections doubled by early 2026. SilverFox has pivoted from Chinese targets via fake installers to Japanese firms via phishing. By using DLL sideloading and fileless memory execution, it easily bypasses traditional endpoint security.

JADEPUFFER is the first LLM threat actor to run an autonomous ransomware campaign. Via a Langflow RCE, it stole credentials, pivoted to MinIO using default passwords, took over a Nacos server, and destroyed 1,342 configurations with an irrecoverable AES key.

Hoppscotch CVE-2026-50160 carries a CVSS 10.0 score. A single unauthenticated API request can overwrite the JWT secret, invalidating all sessions and granting full admin control. Self-hosted instances must patch or go offline immediately.

Saudi Arabia's preparatory compliance phase has ended. With SDAIA strictly enforcing the PDPL and updated NDMO standards in effect, the gap between your current data posture and regulatory expectations is highly consequential. This guide details what a GCC-compliant framework requires.

ShinyHunters breached 100+ orgs exploiting a critical unauthenticated RCE zero-day in Oracle PeopleSoft (CVE-2026-35273) before the June 10 emergency patch. Any GCC organization running unpatched PeopleTools 8.61 or 8.62 faces immediate automated exposure right now.

Adversa AI found GuardFall, a shell injection bypass hitting 10 of 11 AI coding agents (548k GitHub stars combined). It beats safety filters by exploiting the gap between how a filter reads plain text and how a shell executes it, allowing silent file deletion and credential theft.

A coordinated takedown has disrupted GlassWorm, a credential-stealing worm that poisoned over 300 GitHub repositories and compromised 35,000+ developer machines via trojanised VS Code extensions. Here is what GCC development teams need to check now.

The Anatsa banking trojan has returned to Google Play, hidden in a PDF app. This high-impact campaign uses device takeover to execute fraudulent transactions, targeting global users, including those in the GCC banking sector.

Two Scattered Spider members pleaded guilty on day one of their UK trial for the Transport for London attack. The group has since evolved into the SLH alliance. For GCC enterprises in hospitality, telecoms, and financial services, the threat is immediate and operational.

A critical pre-auth bypass in cPanel/WHM (CVE-2026-41940) has been actively exploited since Feb 2026 and is listed on the CISA KEV. With 1.5M instances exposed to ransomware and botnets, GCC hosting operators and enterprise networks must apply the vendor patches immediately.

An unauthenticated Langflow RCE flaw (CVE-2026-33017) is being actively exploited to deploy a stealth Monero cryptominer and self-propagating SSH worm on internet-exposed AI servers. Attacks began within 20 hours of disclosure, with the malware actively disabling host defenses and erasing logs.

While it is highly recent threat intelligence, the breach was initially disclosed to the public on June 23–24, 2026, and primary cybersecurity outlets published their deep dives over this past weekend (June 28–29).

Apple has broken from bundling security fixes with full iOS releases, pushing patches early ahead of iOS 26.6 in response to AI accelerated exploit development. The shift signals a structural change in patch expectations for every enterprise running Apple fleets.

Dell discloses two critical vulnerabilities in its Wyse Management Suite, including an unauthenticated RCE flaw tracking a CVSS score of 9.8.

AI-enabled fraud surged 1,210% in 2025. Deepfake fraud costs are averaging $500,000 per incident. This analysis covers how AI is changing every phase of the attack lifecycle and what GCC security leaders must do differently in response.

80% of GCC breaches in 2025 involved compromised credentials. This deep-dive covers why privileged access has become the dominant enterprise attack surface, how machine identities have outpaced human ones, and what a mature IAM programme looks like for GCC security leaders in 2026.

Microsoft has documented an active phishing campaign targeting hotel front desk systems since April 2026, using booking-complaint lures to deliver TonRAT, a Node.js-based implant that resolves its command-and-control domains via the TON blockchain to evade static blocklists.

Kaspersky has documented a new threat cluster called StrikeShark deploying a previously undocumented loader named SharkLoader to deliver Cobalt Strike Beacon across government entities, software developers and diplomatic organisations in Lebanon, Syria, Taiwan, Indonesia and beyond.

Anthropic has restored access to Claude Mythos 5 for a select group of US organisations operating and defending critical national infrastructure, following a two-week government review that began on June 12. Fable 5 access expansion is also underway.

22% of critical infrastructure firms hit an OT/ICS incident last year. For GCC energy operators in Saudi, UAE, and Qatar, this guide covers threats, NCA OTCC and SAMA compliance, and purpose-built vendors for industrial environments.

A public PoC is out for CVE-2026-45502, an SSRF flaw in Microsoft Exchange's EWS. On-prem deployments are fully exposed because a critical security check only applies to cloud tenants, letting attackers probe internal networks. GCC enterprises must apply the June 2026 patch immediately.

Threat actors linked to the Payouts King ransomware operation are using Microsoft Teams impersonation and a malicious Edge browser extension called Edgecution to escape the browser sandbox and deploy a Python-based backdoor across enterprise networks.

Week 25 briefing: Showboat Chinese espionage in Middle East telecoms, FortiBleed at 110M credentials, Check Point VPN zero-day, Chrome exploited, SocGholish dismantled, Riyadh named UNITAR cyber HQ, and 20+ stories from a packed week in GCC and global security.

Threat actors are actively exploiting a critical SSRF flaw in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, allowing unauthenticated attackers to write files to the underlying OS and escalate to root. GCC enterprises using Unified CM should patch to versions 14SU6 or 15SU5 immediately.

Royal Oman Police dismantled an international online scam network in Dhofar after spotting a suspect climbing a window at 3 a.m. The group used four buildings and telecom infrastructure to target victims in an Asian country.

Anthropic has accused Alibaba of conducting the largest known AI model distillation attack against the company, generating 28.8 million Claude exchanges through 25,000 fraudulent accounts between April and June 2026. The letter was sent to the US Senate Banking Committee.

Every MSSP sales call sounds identical. The differences that matter only surface after something goes wrong. This guide walks UAE security and procurement teams through the nine questions that actually separate capable providers from credible-sounding ones.

Cybernews reports a leak of 24 billion username and password pairs, making it one of the largest credential exposures ever documented. The dataset consolidates years of breaches and dark web compilations into a searchable repository. GCC enterprises and their employees are heavily exposed.

A critical vulnerability in FFmpeg's libavcodec library allows remote code execution via crafted media files. Because FFmpeg underpins thousands of browsers, video conferencing tools, and media servers, the attack surface is extremely broad. Organizations must patch immediately to mitigate risk.

Trump signed EO 14409, forcing US agencies to move high-value systems to post-quantum cryptography by Dec 2030. The order targets harvest-now-decrypt-later threats, pulling timelines forward by 4-5 years. GCC govts & contractors must prepare.

New intelligence from SOCRadar, SpyCloud, and Zenox confirms the FortiBleed campaign has now harvested over 110 million credentials from more than 430,000 FortiGate devices globally. The operation runs 659 active credential-harvesting pipelines. GCC enterprises must act immediately.

A secure high-security data centre corridor with blue-lit server cabinets, representing the revelation that Anthropic's Mythos model identified vulnerabilities in classified US government systems during a Project Glasswing testing exercise

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has attributed a sophisticated npm supply chain attack affecting over 140 Mastra packages to North Korean group Sapphire Sleet, deploying a stealthy Node.js implant, PowerShell backdoor, and targeting 166 cryptocurrency wallet extensions.

GlassWorm, a self-propagating worm active since October 2025, compromised tens of thousands of developer environments via malicious VS Code and OpenVSX extensions, harvesting GitHub tokens, AI API keys, and cryptocurrency wallets.

Trend Micro has officially launched TrendAI in the UAE, rebranding its enterprise cybersecurity division to reflect AI as the central threat and defence layer, as 67% of organisations report pressure to deploy AI despite unresolved security concerns.

The UAE Cyber Security Council and Commvault have launched a dedicated Innovation Centre of Excellence in Abu Dhabi, bringing live cyberattack simulation, recovery training, and talent certification to UAE government and enterprise teams.

INC ransomware-as-a-service has surpassed 800 victims globally since 2023. The group steals admin credentials directly from Veeam backup servers, deploys Rust-based payloads across Windows and Linux, and uses rclone for data exfiltration before encrypting.

International law enforcement has dismantled the SocGholish malware network, seizing 106 servers and 101 domains, and remediating nearly 15,000 infected WordPress sites globally. The operation is part of the ongoing Operation Endgame, targeting Evil Corp-linked infrastructure.

Salesforce has disabled the Klue Battlecards integration after attackers used compromised OAuth tokens and automated Python scripts to bulk-extract customer CRM records for nearly 24 hours. The incident is the latest in a pattern of third-party Salesforce OAuth abuse.

Google has confirmed active exploitation of CVE-2026-11645, a type confusion flaw in Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. The vulnerability allows attackers to execute code in the renderer process. All desktop Chrome versions below 137.0.7151.55 are affected. Patch immediately.

Black Lotus Labs has uncovered Showboat, a stealthy Linux post-exploitation framework active since 2022 and linked with moderate-to-high confidence to Chinese state-backed actors. Primary targets: telecom operators in the Middle East. Zero detections on VirusTotal for nearly two years.

Microsoft Defender and CrowdStrike Falcon dominate GCC enterprise EDR evaluations in 2026. This guide breaks down which platform fits your environment, licensing position, and risk profile.

Japan's banking lobby has warned that AI-enabled cyberattacks may force lenders to proactively shut down ATMs and online banking services to protect customers. The warning has direct relevance for GCC financial institutions.

F5 has released emergency patches for two critical NGINX vulnerabilities carrying CVSS 9.2 scores. Both allow unauthenticated remote code execution. Security teams must patch immediately.

Israeli AI cybersecurity startup Dream has raised $260 million at a $3 billion valuation. The company counts Gulf governments among its customers and has opened an office in Abu Dhabi.

Splunk has disclosed a critical 9.1 CVE in its AI Toolkit allowing admin-level users to execute arbitrary OS commands, with no detection mechanism currently available. GCC enterprises running Splunk for SIEM should patch to version 5.7.4 immediately.

Kuwait's NCSC has made the National Basic Cybersecurity Controls mandatory under Decision No. 2 of 2026. Businesses have 18 months to comply. Here is what every affected organisation must act on now.

A sweeping cyber espionage campaign has compromised around 75,000 Fortinet firewall and VPN devices across 194 countries, exposing credentials from Fortune 500 firms, government agencies, and critical infrastructure providers worldwide.

UAE entities face up to 200,000 daily cyberattack attempts. We break down GCC penetration testing regulations, real 2026 vendor pricing, and the four criteria that separate genuine testing from a scan dressed up as one.

Three new ClickFix malware loaders, BabaDeda, Lorem Ipsum, and Potemkin, are delivering ransomware and RATs across enterprise networks. Education and finance are primary targets. GCC defenders must act.

Unit 42 found a flaw in the Vertex AI Python SDK allowing attackers to replace uploaded ML models with malicious ones and steal OAuth tokens. No exploitation found in the wild. Update to v1.148.0 now.

Azure dominates UAE and Saudi enterprise cloud deployments, but most GCC organisations lack a governance layer. This guide covers five specific controls, from identity and PIM to Defender for Cloud and Sentinel, to turn a standard Azure deployment into a properly secured one.

At 3:30 AM on 11 March 2026, Iranian-linked group Handala wiped over 200,000 Stryker devices across 79 countries using Microsoft Intune. No malware. No zero-day. Just one compromised administrator account. The GCC implications are direct and immediate.

Weekly Briefing (Week 24): Saudi NCA expands mandatory compliance. INTERPOL arrests 201 in Operation Ramz. Critical Veeam CVSS 9.4 flaw found. "The Gentlemen" ransomware gains worm-like speed. MuddyWater exploits Langflow zero-day. Microsoft sets record with 200 fixes. Stay tuned to MENA Cyber Wire.

A cyberattack on shared banking infrastructure in Iran disrupted ATMs, mobile and internet banking, and POS services across four major financial institutions. No customer data was compromised in this latest incident in an escalating pattern of attacks on Iranian financial systems.

Google's Threat Intelligence Group has named UNC6508, a Chinese-linked hacking group that spent over two years inside US and Canadian defence, AI, and medical research networks via REDCap exploits. The campaign's scope and dwell time carry direct lessons for GCC research and government institutions.

Oman's cybersecurity market will grow from $135M in 2025 to $214M by 2031, driven by Vision 2040, Hadatha, and a strategic shift from defensive spending to sovereign economic capability. The GCC's Tier 1-ranked nation is building to export.

The GCC SIEM market is growing fast, but most deployments fail before they start. Here is how to choose the right platform for your technology estate, compliance obligations, and analyst capability.

Tenet Security's Agentjacking research shows how a single fake Sentry error hijacks Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex into running attacker code with the developer's own privileges. 2,388 organisations are exposed. No malware required.

Palo Alto Networks is facing four active CVEs across PAN-OS. One is already being exploited in the wild and listed by CISA. GCC enterprises running GlobalProtect or PA-Series firewalls must act now.

Cloud migration across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar has outrun most organisations' security planning. This guide covers the shared responsibility model, the six most critical GCC cloud risks, the regulatory frameworks that now apply, and what a mature cloud security programme looks like in 2026.

Saudi Arabia’s new NCA regulations, ECC-2:2024 and NCNICC-1:2025, now mandate cybersecurity compliance for all private sector organizations. This guide outlines the key changes, your essential obligations, and the critical areas of enforcement pressure for 2026.

A critical path traversal flaw in Langflow is being actively exploited by the Iranian-linked group MuddyWater, with no official patch available. With roughly 7,000 instances exposed, GCC organisations building AI applications must act immediately to secure their infrastructure.

Veeam has patched CVE-2026-44963, a critical CVSS 9.4 RCE vulnerability in Backup and Replication allowing authenticated domain users to execute arbitrary code. With Veeam protecting 82% of the Fortune 500, GCC enterprises must update to version 12.3.2.4466 or above immediately.

The GCC has invested billions in digital transformation but still lacks a coordinated, EU-style cyber intelligence sharing structure. A leading UK cybersecurity academic warns this gap is now a strategic vulnerability. AI, ransomware and critical infrastructure exposure are the pressure points.

Help AG’s 2026 State of the Market Report shows a machine-speed era for GCC cyber threats. DDoS attacks rose 857% since 2019, with UAE incidents peaking at 700,000 daily during tensions. Attacks now reach impact in under 40 hours, a 65% speed increase that outpaces traditional defenses.

Budget Saudi has confirmed unauthorized access to customer data via its mobile app, as disclosed on Tadawul. The firm, which manages 29,000+ vehicles, stated no financial or banking data was compromised. PDPL reporting obligations to the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) are now active.

Mastercard's inaugural Cyber Pulse report, released from Riyadh, reveals the Middle East average breach cost at $7.29M, 64% above global. Financially motivated attacks drive 71% of EEMEA cybercrime. Public, tech and financial sectors account for 44% of all targeted activity.

Platform consolidation is the defining enterprise security trend for 2026. This guide compares CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and Fortinet using criteria essential for UAE and Saudi enterprise security teams, including honest assessments of where each platform leads and falls short.

Zero Trust is an explicit expectation of Gulf regulators, not just a Western trend. This guide covers the seven-step implementation sequence, GCC-specific factors like contractor identity governance and multi-cloud CIEM, and how to measure genuine programme progress.

Meta has detected and blocked a new NSO Group spear-phishing campaign targeting WhatsApp users and has filed a federal contempt order. NSO, already under a permanent injunction and a $168M damages order, is now accused of violating the court's ban directly.

69% of ransomware victims believed they were adequately prepared before an attack. UAE organisations pay 92% of ransom demands. New research exposes a structural planning failure that Gulf enterprises have not yet confronted, and regulators are beginning to notice.

A working exploit for CVE-2026-23111 is now fully public. Any unprivileged user on an unpatched Debian or Ubuntu system can escalate to root and break out of containers. The patch has been available since February. If your kernel is not updated, it needs to be.

BeyondTrust's 2026 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report shows total CVEs fell 6% but critical vulnerabilities doubled to 157. Azure critical flaws rose 9x. Here is what GCC IT and security teams running Microsoft environments need to act on.

The UAE Data Office is accelerating enforcement ahead of the January 2027 deadline. Here is the complete PDPL compliance checklist every UAE enterprise security team must action now: from data mapping to breach notification readiness.

Check Point has confirmed active exploitation of CVE-2026-50751, a CVSS 9.3 authentication bypass in Remote Access VPN deployments. A Qilin ransomware affiliate is linked to post-compromise activity. GCC enterprises using IKEv1 must patch immediately.

Major threats this week: Meta AI chatbot flaw hijacked IG accounts; FIFA World Cup fraud wave active with 4,300+ sites; Dashlane 2FA bypass; Oracle WebLogic actively exploited. Beware Stripe API Magecart & Chinese LinkedIn recruitment ops. Prioritize patching WebLogic & Cisco SD-WAN.

The self-replicating Miasma worm compromised 73 Microsoft GitHub repositories across Azure, Azure-Samples, Microsoft, and MicrosoftDocs on 5 June. Malicious payloads fire the moment developers open repositories in AI coding tools including Claude Code, Cursor, and Gemini CLI.

Cisco has confirmed active exploitation of CVE-2026-20245, a high-severity command injection flaw in Catalyst SD-WAN Manager. No patch is available. GCC network teams must apply mitigations immediately.

ESET has identified a new Android spyware, Asin, targeting Arabic-speaking users via fake government news, PDF reader, and war-map applications distributed since early 2025.

GCC cybersecurity spend is on course to exceed AED 120 billion by 2030. Here is where the region's CISOs are directing budgets in 2026 and the forces driving each allocation.

UiPath has achieved certification under the Dubai Electronic Security Center Cloud Service Provider Security Standard for its Automation Cloud UAE region, removing the regulatory barrier that previously prevented Dubai government and semi-government entities from deploying UiPath cloud services.

Noventiq has confirmed its participation as Titanium Sponsor at CAISEC'26, taking place 8-9 June at the Kempinski Hotel, New Cairo. The company has simultaneously been accredited as a Tier 1 Cybersecurity Services Provider by Egypt's National Telecom Regulatory Authority.

ESET's SMB Cyber Readiness Index 2026 reveals 45% of small and mid-sized businesses suffered a cyberattack in the past 12 months. AI-powered malware has overtaken all other threats as the top concern, even as overall confidence in cyber resilience improves.

GCC enterprises face a critical choice between SIEM, SOAR, and XDR as they scale their security operations. This guide breaks down each platform, compares their strengths for the Gulf regulatory environment, and tells you which combination makes sense in 2026.

The global cybersecurity market is projected to reach $580.18 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 14.68% from $255 billion in 2025, driven by AI-powered threat detection, zero-trust adoption and surging cloud security demand across enterprise and critical infrastructure sectors.

Anthropic has expanded access to its Claude Mythos AI model to 150 additional companies across 15 countries under Project Glasswing, with early partners already surfacing more than 10,000 high or critical severity security vulnerabilities.

Google's June 2026 Android update patches 124 flaws. CVE-2025-48595 is actively exploited, enables privilege escalation with no user interaction across Android 14–16. CISA deadline: 5 June.

A newly disclosed HTTP/2 Bomb exploit crashes NGINX, Apache, IIS, Envoy and Cloudflare Pingora via memory exhaustion. No patch exists for three platforms. GCC enterprise teams must act now.

74% of significant breaches in 2025 involved a compromised endpoint. For GCC enterprises managing mixed-platform environments and scarce analyst talent, here is what rigorous EDR and XDR capability actually looks like.

BeyondTrust's 13th annual Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report shows total flaws dropped 6% in 2025 while critical vulnerabilities doubled. Azure and Dynamics 365 saw a 9x surge in critical findings. Here is what GCC IT teams need to act on now.

A functional npm package with 29,000 weekly downloads has been silently exfiltrating OpenAI Codex authentication tokens for over a month. The stolen refresh tokens do not expire, giving attackers indefinite, silent access to any compromised account.

Ransomware victims surged 58% in 2025. The GCC is not a bystander. UAE ranked 9th globally for cyber incidents. Saudi Arabia saw 32% more ransomware in 2024 alone. Here is what the 2026 threat picture looks like and what GCC enterprise teams must do now.

Ooredoo Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Ministry of Defense have deployed Qatar's first quantum-safe communications link using quantum key distribution over existing dark fibre. A significant step for GCC critical infrastructure security.

MuddyWater, Iran's MOIS-linked APT group, is running an active 2026 campaign targeting UAE government agencies and energy sector operators with Rust-based malware. Here is what defenders need to act on now.

GCC organisations have been running security awareness training for a decade. Breach rates have not dropped. This analysis explains why compliance-driven training fails, what a behaviour-focused human risk programme looks like, and what GCC enterprises need to change.

Threat actors are exploiting CVE-2026-35616 in FortiClient EMS to deliver a new credential stealer called EKZ, disguised as a Fortinet endpoint patch. The malware harvests browser credentials from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox and exfiltrates them silently across all managed endpoints.

Palo Alto Networks has confirmed active exploitation of CVE-2026-0257, a GlobalProtect VPN authentication bypass flaw in PAN-OS. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue with a June 1 federal remediation deadline. Enterprise teams using GlobalProtect must patch immediately.

The 3rd Government Cybersecurity Summit convenes in Abu Dhabi on 9 June 2026, bringing 400+ government officials and security leaders together to address the UAE's escalating threat landscape and secure its digital future.

A zero-day XSS flaw in Microsoft Exchange OWA, CVE-2026-42897 with CVSS 8.1, is being actively exploited. No permanent patch exists. The CISA federal remediation deadline falls today. On-premises Exchange administrators must act now.

India's BFSI sector absorbs cyberattacks at 1.6 times the global average with a mean breach containment time of 263 days, per BCG and DSCI. The AI-threat dynamics documented are a direct benchmark for GCC financial institutions.

The GCC faces a critical shortage of qualified CISOs. Hundreds of enterprises are turning to the Virtual CISO model to build executive-grade security programmes at a fraction of the cost and in weeks, not months.

Iranian threat actor MuddyWater linked to a Q1 2026 espionage campaign targeting nine organizations across four continents, including a Middle East airport. Attackers used DLL side-loading via signed Fortemedia and SentinelOne binaries to evade detection and harvest credentials.

CrowdStrike, Google, and Shadowserver have disrupted all four command-and-control channels of GlassWorm. Since early 2025, this developer-targeting supply chain campaign poisoned over 300 GitHub repositories, trojanized VS Code extensions, and compromised npm and Python packages.

Attackers no longer need to steal your second factor. They just need to send enough push notifications until a user approves one. MFA prompt bombing is live against enterprise VPNs, Microsoft 365 and Okta today and the fix is not adding more factors.

Microsoft has patched a critical remote code execution vulnerability in SharePoint Server tracked as CVE-2026-45659 with a CVSS score of 8.8. Any authenticated attacker with minimum Site Member permissions can exploit the deserialization flaw over a network without elevated privileges.

Abhay Pandey, founder and CEO of MAST Consulting, warns that agentic AI systems capable of triggering workflows and accessing enterprise systems require Zero Trust architecture, ISO/IEC 42001 alignment, and strict human approval thresholds or they become operational and compliance liabilities.

Compliance audits prove controls exist on paper. Red teaming answers the question that matters most: can a skilled adversary achieve a meaningful objective against your organization right now? Here is what GCC security leaders must understand before commissioning their first engagement.

Iran's IRGC-linked Nimbus Manticore has launched three espionage campaigns since February 2026. It deploys an AI-assisted backdoor, MiniFast, against aviation and software employees in the US, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE via fake job offers, trojanized Zoom installers, and SEO poisoning.

Security researchers at Socket have identified TrapDoor, a coordinated cross-ecosystem supply chain attack distributing 34 malicious packages across npm, PyPI, and Crates.io, targeting cryptocurrency, DeFi, Solana, and AI developers to steal credentials, SSH keys, cloud tokens, and wallet data.

LiteSpeed has confirmed active exploitation of CVE-2026-48172, a zero-day privilege escalation flaw in its cPanel user-end plugin that allows any valid cPanel account to execute scripts as root. All deployments running plugin versions 2.3 through 2.4.4 should patch immediately to version 2.4.7.

NCC Group subsidiary Fox-IT has uncovered RemotePE, a cross-platform remote access trojan deployed by North Korea-linked Lazarus Group that runs entirely in memory, leaves no filesystem trace, and targets financial institutions and cryptocurrency organisations through a multi-stage loader chain.

UAE-headquartered LinkShadow has been positioned in the Visionaries Quadrant of the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Detection and Response, recognised for its AI-driven Intelligent NDR platform combining real-time network telemetry, behavioural analytics, and contextual threat correlation.

CTM360 warns of a coordinated fraud ecosystem targeting FIFA World Cup 2026 fans and brands ahead of the June kickoff. The Bahrain-based firm has already identified over 7,000 tournament-themed domains, 1,000+ active scam sites, and 1,000+ social media impersonation accounts across seven platforms.

Secure.com CEO Uzair Gadit warns that UAE SMEs face their highest cyber risk exposure during Eid, with AI-powered attacks scaling rapidly and 77% of UAE businesses that experience a breach forced to spend months rebuilding customer trust.

Anthropic's Project Glasswing has used the unreleased Claude Mythos Preview to surface over 10,000 high-severity vulnerabilities in a single month. Here is what enterprise security teams need to understand about this shift.

The UAE Cybersecurity Council has confirmed the country's cyber insurance market is now valued at approximately $70 million, with 80% of UAE institutions recognising cyber insurance as an essential risk management tool amid rising AI-enabled attacks.

Threat intelligence researchers have identified more than 1,350 active command-and-control servers across 98 providers in 14 Middle Eastern countries, with Saudi Arabia's STC accounting for 72% of all regional C2 infrastructure.

Microsoft seized Fox Tempest's infrastructure in Operation OpFauxSign, dismantling a malware-signing-as-a-service platform that helped ransomware gangs disguise malware as legitimate software to attack hospitals, schools, and critical organisations worldwide.

The UAE Cyber Security Council, e& UAE, and Open Innovation AI launched a sovereign AI platform at ISNR 2026 that governs and validates AI deployments across classified government and critical infrastructure environments.

Boards across the GCC are asking CISOs how much a ransomware attack would cost. Most security teams cannot answer in financial terms. Here is why that gap exists and what needs to change.

Marks and Spencer's adjusted profit fell 23.8% to £671m after a cyber incident disrupted the first half of its financial year, a textbook case for why GCC boards must treat cyber risk as a financial risk.

Kuwait's CITRA reported 172 cyber fraud cases handled by the National Cyber Security Center in April 2026, with fraudulent websites accounting for the largest share of complaints at 87 reports.

China-linked threat actor Calypso has deployed Showboat, a modular Linux backdoor, against a Middle East telecommunications provider since mid-2022, using it as a SOCKS5 proxy to move laterally across internal networks.

Three critical flaws in SEPPMail Secure E-Mail Gateway, including a CVSS 10.0 path traversal bug, allow unauthenticated attackers to intercept all mail traffic and execute code remotely on enterprise networks.

A phishing-as-a-service platform called EvilTokens compromised over 340 Microsoft 365 organisations in five weeks by hijacking OAuth consent flows. This attack bypasses MFA without ever touching a password.

Four malicious npm packages with more than 3,000 combined downloads have been confirmed as delivering information-stealing malware and a Golang DDoS botnet. OX Security confirms all four packages remained available for download at the time of disclosure.

Five major enterprise vendors have released simultaneous patches for critical flaws including unauthenticated RCE, SQL injection, and privilege escalation. With CVSS scores reaching 9.6, GCC security teams should treat this as an immediate patching priority.

Hitachi and Anthropic announced a strategic partnership to bring Claude AI and cybersecurity to critical infrastructure. The deal deploys Claude across 290,000 global employees and launches a new Frontier AI Deployment Center spanning North America, Europe, and Asia.

Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report reveals that AI-detected vulnerabilities now account for 31% of all breaches, surpassing stolen credentials as the leading entry vector. Threat actors are using AI to shrink defender response windows from months to hours.

Microsoft has disclosed active exploitation of CVE-2026-42897, a spoofing flaw in on-premise Exchange Server. An emergency mitigation is available; a permanent patch is pending. On-premise deployments are at risk now.

A public proof-of-concept for MiniPlasma, a Windows zero-day in the Cloud Filter driver, cldflt.sys, now grants SYSTEM-level privileges on fully patched systems, including those running May 2026 updates.

The UAE PDPL is in full effect, Saudi Arabia's PDPD is actively enforced, and penalties now include criminal liability. This guide outlines what GCC enterprises must have in place in 2026 to stay compliant.

Operation Ramz, the first INTERPOL-coordinated cybercrime operation of its scale in MENA, resulted in 201 arrests, 3,867 victims identified, and 53 servers seized across 13 countries, with Group-IB and Kaspersky providing critical intelligence support.

Anthropic has revised Project Glasswing restrictions, allowing partners using its Mythos defensive cybersecurity AI model to share threat findings, vulnerability data, and mitigation tools more broadly across the security ecosystem.

Clyde & Co explores how Middle East businesses face compounding cyber threats from state-linked actors, OT vulnerabilities, and cloud disruption: alongside rising legal obligations around data residency, force majeure, and IT resilience.

New analysis by Symantec and Carbon Black confirms Fast16 was engineered to corrupt uranium-compression simulations inside LS-DYNA and AUTODYN, making it the earliest known nuclear sabotage malware predating Stuxnet by two years.

UK firm Sitehop has launched SAFEcore Edge, a compact hardware device delivering post-quantum encryption to OT networks, SCADA systems, and remote energy infrastructure where conventional cybersecurity tools cannot be deployed.

Attackers are actively exploiting a critical flaw in the Funnel Builder plugin for WordPress to inject payment skimmers into WooCommerce checkouts. More than 40,000 stores are affected. The injected code mimics Google Tag Manager to steal card numbers, CVVs, and billing addresses in real time.

Four critical vulnerabilities in OpenClaw, collectively named Claw Chain, can be chained to achieve data theft, privilege escalation, and persistent backdoor access. Cyera researchers detail a four-step exploitation sequence that uses the AI agent's own runtime privileges against the environment.

Russia's Turla APT group has restructured its Kazuar backdoor into a modular peer-to-peer botnet engineered for stealth and persistent access. Microsoft Threat Intelligence details how the redesign splits functionality across Kernel, Bridge, and Worker modules to evade detection.

An unauthorised actor stole a GitHub access token from Grafana, downloaded its codebase, and attempted extortion. The CoinbaseCartel group has claimed responsibility. Grafana refused to pay the ransom and has revoked the compromised credentials.

US officials suspect Iranian-linked hackers accessed unprotected fuel-level monitoring systems at gas stations across multiple states. No physical damage reported, but the intrusions expose dangerous gaps in critical infrastructure security.

Microsoft confirms CVE-2026-42897, an actively exploited XSS spoofing flaw in on-premise Exchange Server, allows JavaScript execution via crafted emails in Outlook Web Access. CISA has added it to the KEV catalogue. Apply mitigations today.

A critical heap buffer overflow hidden in NGINX for 18 years is now being actively exploited. CVE-2026-42945 scores 9.2 CVSS and can crash worker processes or enable unauthenticated remote code execution. Patch immediately.

Roland Berger asserts that AI sovereignty in the GCC is no longer defined by data residency. Instead, true autonomy depends on the management of encryption keys, identity frameworks, and operational governance of AI systems.

CISA has added Cisco SD-WAN CVE-2026-20182, a CVSS 10.0 authentication bypass granting full admin access, to its KEV catalogue. Federal agencies must patch by 17 May. Cisco Talos confirms active exploitation by UAT-8616.

Eighty per cent of breaches across the GCC in 2025 involved compromised credentials. The perimeter is gone. Identity is the new control plane, and most organisations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the wider Gulf are still under-invested in the capabilities that protect it.

Executives from TechBridge MEA and Cylerian at the announcement of their strategic partnership to deliver unified AI-native cybersecurity across the Middle East and Africa.

Genetec has urged Middle East organisations to strengthen credential governance across connected physical security systems, warning that AI is accelerating the speed and scale of attacks against cameras, access control and cloud infrastructure.

Google has introduced a comprehensive set of AI-powered security upgrades for Android, including live threat detection, automatic OTP hiding, expanded app behaviour monitoring and stronger device protection when a handset is reported lost or stolen.

RubyGems temporarily suspended new account registrations after a coordinated bot campaign published more than 500 malicious packages. The packages have since been removed, but the incident highlights growing pressure on open-source ecosystems.

From SentinelOne and Sophos to Dragos and Censys, GCC cybersecurity leaders are united: passwords are a liability, attackers are logging in rather than breaking in, and the region's identity security posture must change now.

The UAE Cyber Security Council and Palo Alto Networks have signed a strategic MoU to develop AI-powered cybersecurity capabilities, establish a Centre of Excellence in the UAE, and strengthen national cyber talent and CERT operations.

The ninth edition of ISNR opens at ADNEC Abu Dhabi on 19 May 2026, bringing together 253 exhibitors from 37 countries across cybersecurity, AI, homeland security and critical infrastructure protection over three days.

The UAE Cyber Security Council and CPX Holding have launched the UAE Cyber Factory, a sovereign AI-powered initiative to design, build and scale next-generation cyber defences as the country records more than 800,000 daily cyberattacks.

The Mini Shai-Hulud worm has compromised over 170 npm and PyPI packages including TanStack, Mistral AI, and UiPath, stealing CI/CD credentials and threatening to wipe developer machines. CVE-2026-45321 is rated critical at CVSS 9.6.

Agentic AI tools are already running in enterprise environments across the GCC, often without security team oversight. Here is what B2B security leaders must understand about the attack surfaces they are opening.

A critical use-after-free vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-45185 in Exim MTA affects all GnuTLS builds from version 4.97 to 4.99.2. Patch to 4.99.3 immediately. No mitigations exist.

The UAE Cyber Security Council and ATRC have signed an agreement to accelerate the nation's transition to post-quantum cryptography, deploying sovereign tools including the Crypto Discovery Tool and quantum key distribution.

New Sophos research reveals that women are playing a growing and diverse role in cybercrime, from social engineering and insider recruitment to ransomware development and hacktivist operations. Security teams that ignore this shift are building incomplete threat models.

A typosquatted OpenAI model reached number one on Hugging Face's trending list in under 18 hours, racking up 244,000 downloads before it was pulled. It was delivering a Rust-based infostealer linked to a Chinese APT.

The average time from CVE publication to working exploit has collapsed to 10 hours in 2026. Traditional purple teaming cannot keep pace. Here is what autonomous validation changes: and why GCC security teams need to act now.

A researcher remotely took control of 11,000 internet-connected robotic mowers sold in 30+ countries using a single shared admin password. The maker is China-based. The backdoor is still there.

A critical CVSS 9.1 vulnerability in Ollama, dubbed Bleeding Llama, allows unauthenticated attackers to leak full process memory including API keys, system prompts, and user data from over 300,000 exposed AI inference servers globally.

The IMF has issued a stark warning: AI is lowering the barrier for cyberattackers, making it faster and easier to exploit vulnerabilities across interconnected financial systems and the consequences could trigger liquidity crises, institutional insolvency, and systemic market instability.

Web apps, APIs, and mobile applications are now the primary attack surface for adversaries targeting GCC enterprises. The security of the software being shipped is not keeping pace with the pace of shipping it. Here is what that gap looks like, and how to close it.

Hackers are no longer just after passwords. They target the machines running our cities. The UAE Cyber Security Council and Siemens have signed an MoU to protect the UAE's power grids, water systems and industrial networks from the next generation of cyberattacks.

The UAE absorbs up to 200,000 cyberattacks daily. With AI-enabled phishing, ransomware and state-aligned threats surging, Akin Gump outlines the five board-level priorities every GCC organisation must act on now to protect business continuity.

PCI DSS v4.0 is now mandatory and non-compliance costs GCC enterprises far more than a fine. This guide breaks down merchant levels, the 12 requirements, common failures, and what to demand from a QSA operating in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Hacking group ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for a breach of Instructure, the parent company of the Canvas learning management system, taking the platform offline for thousands of institutions globally and threatening to release data unless affected universities make contact before May 12.

ASIC has issued a formal warning to the financial sector regarding cybersecurity risks from frontier AI models like Mythos. With the clock at "a minute to midnight," the regulator urges institutions to immediately strengthen cyber resilience fundamentals to counter these emerging AI-driven threats.

A new Mirai-derived botnet, xlabs_v1, targets Android devices via exposed ADB interfaces. Beyond consumer tech, it compromises enterprise IoT, PoS systems, and warehouse terminals. It profiles bandwidth for tiered pricing and uses OpenVPN-shaped UDP floods to bypass traditional IDS.

Iranian state-backed group MuddyWater used Microsoft Teams screen-sharing to harvest credentials in a false flag operation disguised as ransomware. Oman's Ministry of Justice lost 26,000 records. The Port of Fujairah in the UAE was breached, leaking 11,000 sensitive shipping documents.

Twelve critical vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the vm2 Node.js sandbox library, including three with perfect CVSS 10.0 scores. All allow attackers to escape the sandbox and execute arbitrary code on the host. Update to version 3.11.2 immediately.

The UAE Cyber Security Council, Cisco, and Open Innovation AI have launched a first-of-its-kind national facility to test, validate, and certify AI models and agents against UAE cybersecurity standards and global frameworks including ISO 42001 and NIST AI RMF.

A critical double-free flaw in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.66 mod_http2 lets attackers trigger denial-of-service with a single TCP connection and achieve remote code execution on Debian-based and Docker deployments. A working proof of concept exists. Patch to 2.4.67 immediately.

Gulf businesses are being pushed to rethink continuity plans as ransomware attacks grow capable of taking operations offline for weeks. Leading regional security experts share what resilience now demands from the boardroom to the SOC.

In 2025, AI-assisted attacks crossed a dangerous threshold. Malicious packages grew 725% in three years, time-to-exploit collapsed to 44 days, and individuals began conducting breaches once only possible for organised teams. Here is what that means for GCC enterprise defenders in 2026.

Milestone Systems has released XProtect 2026 R1 and enhanced its Arcules cloud platform, targeting the rapid urban development underway across Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East under Vision 2030 with smarter, data-driven physical security infrastructure.

Rubrik has launched Agent Cloud for Google Gemini Enterprise, bringing real-time AI agent governance, instant action reversal and automated discovery to GCC enterprises deploying autonomous agents, addressing the security gap no existing SIEM or EDR tool was designed to fill.

AmiViz and Acalvio have announced a strategic distribution partnership to bring AI-powered deception technology across the Middle East, exposing advanced threats before they escalate, with a focus on agentic AI risks in GCC enterprise and government sectors.

Infosecurity Europe 2026 runs June 2 to 4 at ExCeL London. With sessions covering AI agent security, ransomware tradecraft, cloud fundamentals, and hybrid infrastructure threats, this year's programme carries direct relevance for GCC enterprise security leaders. Early registration closes May 5.

Email is the primary entry point for GCC cyberattacks, yet legacy defenses are failing. From AI phishing to MFA bypass, traditional gateways are insufficient. This guide explores why outdated models fail and details what a modern, layered email security program requires in 2026.

The FBI warns that criminal groups are systematically compromising freight brokers and carriers to steal high-value cargo. Global losses topped $725 million in 2025. A 60% value increase despite lower incident growth. GCC logistics operators must review these documented attack methodologies.

Trellix, formed by McAfee Enterprise and FireEye, confirmed unauthorized access to its source code repository. Forensic experts and law enforcement are investigating. While no exploitation has been found, GCC enterprises using Trellix products should conduct immediate security reviews.

CISA added CVE-2026-31431 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. This Linux kernel flaw, present since 2017, allows deterministic page cache overwrites to gain root access. Federal agencies must patch the privilege escalation vulnerability by May 15, 2026.

Anthropic has launched Claude Security in public beta for Claude Enterprise customers, offering AI-powered vulnerability scanning, confidence-rated findings, and patch generation designed to close the gap between threat discovery and remediation as frontier AI compresses exploit timelines.

Kuwait's National Cybersecurity Centre issued Resolution No. 2 of 2026, establishing mandatory cybersecurity controls for government bodies, public institutions, and private sector entities. Full compliance is required within 18 months. Non compliance may lead to regulatory and criminal liability.

An Iran aligned hacktivist group, Handala, claimed a large-scale wiper attack against Stryker Corporation, alleging up to 200,000 systems wiped across 79 countries. Exact numbers are not fully verified, but the disruption was real, with outages affecting endpoints, servers, and corporate systems.

The perimeter security model has been systematically dismantled by cloud adoption, remote work, and supply chain complexity. This deep guide covers what Zero Trust actually means, how to implement it in phases, and what GCC enterprises in government and financial services need to know.

Versions 2.6.2 and 2.6.3 of PyTorch Lightning have been compromised with credential-stealing malware that runs automatically on import. The attack is linked to TeamPCP and LAPSUS$ and targets CI/CD pipelines and GitHub repositories.

PcVue achieves IEC 62443-4-2 SL2 certification, setting a new OT security benchmark for GCC industrial procurement.

Akin Gump's April 2026 advisory outlines five urgent cybersecurity priorities for GCC organisations navigating elevated geopolitical risk, from identity and access controls to board-level governance and AI threat readiness. Here is what enterprise security and legal teams need to act on now.

The MEA cybersecurity market is on track to reach $40 billion by 2030, growing at 9.8% annually as GCC digital mandates, cloud adoption, and ransomware pressure drive sustained enterprise investment.

Fortinet's 2025 report reveals its role in INTERPOL's Operation Serengeti 2.0, which disrupted over 11,400 malicious infrastructures. The company also expanded post-quantum cryptography across FortiOS and trained over 914,000 people in cybersecurity.

Most GCC enterprises spend their security budgets defending against threats they cannot see. This deep explainer covers how cyber threat intelligence works, what types matter, and how to operationalise it across your enterprise security stack.

UAE's Omniconn has become the first GCC company to earn UL 3115 certification, validating its AI-powered Platform 4.0 for safe, secure deployment in critical building infrastructure across the region.

Egypt's Communications Minister and Intel MEA GM have agreed to a cybersecurity and AI cooperation MOU, covering workforce training, the Karnak Arabic LLM, and digital transformation strategy.

Saudi Arabia's fraud detection market is projected to reach $1.98B by 2034, driven by SAMA mandates, a 300% surge in AI-powered scams, and Vision 2030's cashless economy push.

AmiViz and FrontierZero have announced a strategic distribution partnership to address the growing threat of shadow SaaS, identity blind spots, and unmanaged AI tools across enterprise environments in the Middle East and Africa.

Kuwait's National Cybersecurity Center is accelerating the rollout of GovShield, a centralised government cyber defence programme offering 24/7 SOC monitoring, penetration testing, and threat intelligence to all government entities at no cost.

CISA has confirmed active exploitation of 4 flaws in SimpleHelp, Samsung MagicINFO and D-Link DIR-823X routers. With a May 8, 2026 federal deadline, GCC enterprises running these products must act now. No patch exists for D-Link.

Singapore's CSA warns that frontier AI is shrinking exploit timelines from months to hours. Discover why GCC regulators are likely to turn this non-binding advisory into your next mandatory compliance hurdle.

Italy has approved the extradition of Xu Zewei, an alleged member of China's Hafnium APT group, to the US on charges of stealing COVID-19 research and mass enterprise hacking.

Real cyber resilience is not about keeping attackers out. It is about ensuring the business survives when they get in. Experts from Acronis, Delinea, and Axis Communications explain what genuine resilience looks like for Middle East enterprises in 2026.

The GCC's energy pipelines, desalination plants, and power grids run on operational technology built for reliability — not security. As these systems connect to digital networks, they become the region's most consequential attack surface. Here is what enterprises must understand and act on now.

The UAE Cyber Security Council has flagged a 32% surge in digital identity attacks during the first half of the year, warning enterprises that AI, IoT, and cloud expansion are widening the threat surface. MFA adoption and user awareness remain the first line of defense.

A cyberattack is no longer a question of if. It is a question of when. Across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, the gap between breach frequency and incident readiness remains one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities in enterprise security today.

Mozilla's Firefox CTO says Anthropic's restricted Mythos AI model found 271 security vulnerabilities in Firefox 150 simply by analyzing unreleased source code compared to just 22 found by Claude Opus 4.6 a month earlier. The cybersecurity balance may be shifting.

New research across 500 EMEA security leaders finds 94% believe stronger employee awareness directly reduces cyber incidents. Yet 67% say their workforce still lacks sufficient cybersecurity knowledge. For Gulf enterprises, the human layer remains the most underdeveloped defense.

Two of the world's leading cybersecurity firms have appointed senior regional executives in the UAE within days of each other a signal that enterprise security demand across the Gulf is intensifying as AI-powered threats grow in sophistication and scale.

Saudi Arabia accounted for 63% of cyber incidents across the Middle East in 2025. As 2026 is designated the Year of AI and the NCA tightens its licensing framework, the Kingdom's cybersecurity market is entering a new phase of maturity and urgency.

Egypt's cybersecurity startup ecosystem is maturing fast. From AI-powered threat detection and dark web monitoring to mobile runtime security and talent development six Cairo-based ventures are expanding across the Gulf, Europe, and North America.

Google has unveiled an AI-powered cybersecurity platform combining its Threat Intelligence and Security Operations with Wiz's cloud security stack. Its own SOC agents now triage tens of thousands of threat reports monthly cutting mitigation time by over 90%.

KPMG's Cybersecurity Considerations 2026 draws on 20+ global cyber experts to outline eight priorities reshaping enterprise security from agentic AI governance and non-human identity risks to post-quantum cryptography and CISO board-level influence.

Regulatory expectations across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are tightening faster than most compliance programmes can keep pace. This guide breaks down what GRC means for GCC enterprises and how to build a programme that actually works.

North Korea's Lazarus Group has been blamed for a $290 million heist from Kelp DAO using RPC spoofing and a DDoS-triggered failover attack the most technically sophisticated DeFi infrastructure breach on record.

E-commerce scams now account for 85% of financial phishing in Oman, while infostealers compromised over one million banking accounts in 2025 as mobile malware attacks grow 1.5x year-on-year, per Kaspersky.

JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup have confirmed Mythos access while regulators in the UK, Europe, and Asia scramble to assess what it means for financial sector cyber resilience.

ESET previews AI protection capabilities targeting shadow AI, prompt injection, and agentic risks — giving enterprise security teams visibility into how employees interact with AI tools across the organisation.

OPSWAT and Emerson announce a global reseller agreement embedding OT-native patch management into the Ovation Automation Platform — a critical step for power and water operators facing surging cyber threats.

Cisco has launched its Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio across EMEA, offering GCC enterprises and governments air-gapped, on-premises control over critical digital workloads, with Saudi Arabia as a key focus market.

StarLink's 2026 Roadshow is live across 7 Middle East cities, spotlighting AI-powered cyber defence. Riyadh done, Jeddah next on Apr 21 — register before your city's date.

Cloud migration across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar is accelerating — but most organisations arrive without a security strategy. This guide breaks down the GCC cloud security gap, the shared responsibility model, and six critical risks enterprises can't afford to ignore.

Tokenisation is being embedded into GCC sovereign financial infrastructure — but nearly $25B in illicit on-chain activity globally and rising quantum computing threats expose a critical security and compliance gap enterprises cannot ignore.

The UAE Cyber Security Council warns that 25% of public files contain sensitive data and up to 77% of privately shared files remain accessible to unintended users — a critical gap for GCC enterprises relying on cloud storage.

A speculative analysis of how an escalating AI cyber arms race could affect global and GCC banking institutions and why legacy infrastructure creates the greatest structural exposure.

Cloud migration across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar is accelerating — but most organisations arrive without a security strategy. This guide breaks down the GCC cloud security gap, the shared responsibility model, and six critical risks enterprises can't afford to ignore.

Anthropic's Claude Mythos can autonomously identify and exploit vulnerabilities across complex legacy banking systems — and experts warn the GCC's highly interconnected financial infrastructure may face amplified systemic risk as a result.

Cisco's inaugural State of Wireless Report finds 83% of UAE organisations suffered wireless security incidents in the past year, with 52% reporting losses above $1M — as AI workloads intensify both opportunity and risk across Gulf enterprises.

SANS, CSA, and OWASP warn that AI has collapsed the exploit timeline from years to hours. A new CISO briefing — built by 60+ experts, reviewed by 250+ CISOs — delivers 11-action framework GCC security leaders can deploy this week.

A Heidrick & Struggles survey of 148 Middle East leaders finds 49% cite cybersecurity as their top organisational risk in 2026 — the highest of any region globally — while AI governance confidence sits below the global average at just 36%.

A two-day destructive cyberattack on GCC critical infrastructure — attributed to Iran-aligned Handala — reportedly wiped 6 PB of data and exfiltrated 149 TB, marking a critical escalation from espionage to deliberate digital destruction.

Barq Systems and Comstor executives reveal how Cisco's zero-trust, SASE, and AI-driven security platforms are being deployed across Saudi government and enterprise clients — and what's next for KSA's cybersecurity landscape.

KnowBe4 has launched Agent Risk Manager from Dubai — the industry's first platform built to monitor, govern, and defend autonomous AI agents against prompt injection, data exfiltration, and rogue behavior in enterprise environments.

Digital threats in the GCC are outpacing most organisations' defences. This enterprise guide breaks down the cybersecurity services landscape and explains why penetration testing has become a non-negotiable investment for B2B businesses in 2026.

Abu Dhabi's CPX Holding has launched a Unified Identity Fabric IAM offering governing human, machine, and AI agent identities under a single sovereign Zero Trust framework aligned to UAE regulations.

Kaspersky's 2025 Financial Threat Report reveals 85.8% of Middle East financial phishing now targets e-commerce platforms — as infostealer detections in the region surged 26% year-on-year.

Frontier AI models are now finding open banking API vulnerabilities faster than human analysts — putting GCC financial institutions at systemic risk years ahead of quantum threat timelines.

Dubai-based RNS Technology Services has partnered with AI security firm QuilrAI to bring real-time AI governance — covering shadow AI, data leakage, and autonomous agent risks — to Middle East enterprises.

Qatar is emerging as a regional cyber resilience leader, backed by its National Cyber Security Strategy 2024–2030. Experts warn enterprises must move beyond compliance as ransomware, identity attacks, and geopolitical threats reshape the GCC's digital risk landscape.

The GCC big data security market is growing rapidly, driven by Vision 2030, rising cyberattacks, and data localisation laws. Here is the definitive 2026 market analysis.

As Vision 2030 accelerates Saudi Arabia's digital shift, enterprise security leaders are prioritising Zero Trust, AI-driven detection, and compliance-first architectures. Here's what the evolving KSA threat landscape demands from organisations today.

Hackers briefly compromised CPUID's website to replace CPU-Z and HWMonitor download links with trojanized installers that deployed STX RAT via DLL side-loading — affecting over 150 victims globally.

MITRE has launched the Fight Fraud Framework (F3), a free behavioural knowledge base that helps fraud investigators and cybersecurity analysts describe, detect, and disrupt fraud campaigns. It draws on real-world incidents and complements the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

Marshall University's Institute for Cyber Security will host a hands-on operational technology training event on April 14–15. This program aims to equip leaders with the skills needed to protect critical infrastructure, including water systems, energy grids, healthcare, and transportation networks.

A US government investigation found Microsoft could not adequately document how it protects sensitive data in its cloud — yet received security approval anyway. With Azure expanding into Saudi Arabia and the UAE, GCC enterprises need to ask harder questions.

Kuwait International Bank has issued a formal cyber fraud alert tied to the Central Bank of Kuwait's Diraya campaign, warning of fake donation scams, malware-laced documents, and phishing impersonating GCC regulators — targeting financial sector customers across the region.

The GCC cannot regulate its way to cyber resilience without the people to enforce it. A 47% skills gap, 35,000+ unfilled roles in Saudi Arabia alone, and tightening SAMA and CBUAE mandates are creating a perfect storm enterprise can no longer ignore.

India just overhauled its insurance cyber rules. GCC regulators already moved first. Here is what CBUAE and SAMA now require from every insurer operating in the Gulf — and what the penalties look like for non-compliance.

OPSWAT launches Predictive Alin AI, its first proprietary ML-based pre-execution threat detection engine for MetaDefender — built for defense, energy, and government sectors with near-zero false positives.

StarLink, an Infinigate Group company, showcases AI-driven cybersecurity at GITEX Africa 2026, featuring BeyondTrust, Sophos, Tenable, Forescout and more for Africa's digital resilience.

Infosys and Harness unite to tackle the AI Velocity Paradox — where faster code generation is outpacing secure, governed deployment in regulated enterprise environments.

Bahrain's CTM360 sponsors FIRST CTI 2026 in Munich, showcasing a preemptive threat intelligence model built on Indicators of Exposure, Warning, and Attack — moving GCC enterprises beyond reactive IoC frameworks.

Commvault expands its Microsoft Security integration with AI-driven recovery workflows targeting GCC enterprises — directly addressing UAE and Saudi Arabia's tightening cyber resilience mandates.

UAE cyber threats are surging, with ransomware up 32% and phishing causing 75% of breaches. Risks now include "Shadow AI" and AI-driven email fraud. The UAE Cyber Security Council warns that the market will hit $1.51B by 2031 as the nation shifts toward mandatory resilience.

Germany's BfV has warned that Russian state-linked group APT28 compromised TP-Link routers to spy on military, government, and critical infrastructure targets — in a joint advisory with the BND and US FBI.

RSAC 2026 put AI centre stage — but the data tells a different story. Only 28% of cybersecurity professionals are satisfied in their roles, and 68% say the job is harder than ever. Here's what security leaders need to know.

Google Cloud's Cybersecurity Forecast 2026 warns of AI-powered attacks, rising ransomware, and nation-state threats — with the Middle East and GCC squarely in the crosshairs.

CYSEC MENA 2026 convenes the cybersecurity ecosystems of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province to foster cross-border resilience and digital innovation.

The Security Middle East Conference 2026 arrives in Riyadh to align global security innovation with Saudi Vision 2030, featuring 1,000+ attendees and elite industry leaders.

In 2025, over 7.5 million cyber incidents were recorded globally. AI attacks, ransomware, and phishing are accelerating — and GCC organizations in financial services, healthcare, energy, and government are directly in the crosshairs. Here are the 8 risks that matter most.

ESET's PROTECT platform update adds Cloud Workload Protection for VMs across AWS, Azure, and GCP — free for existing customers — as cloud breaches average USD 5.17 million per incident.

An investigation by Fairlinked e.V. alleges LinkedIn silently scans users' browsers for over 6,000 extensions — potentially revealing religious beliefs, political views, and job-seeking activity — without user consent or disclosure in its privacy policy. LinkedIn firmly denies wrongdoing.

Researchers uncovered 36 fake Strapi CMS plugins on npm that executed automatically on install, weaponizing Redis and PostgreSQL to deploy reverse shells, harvest credentials, and establish persistent access — likely targeting a cryptocurrency platform.

The UAE Cyber Security Council has warned that more than 75% of cyber breaches begin with phishing emails, as 3.4 billion fraudulent messages are sent daily targeting individuals and institutions worldwide.

A North Korean state-sponsored group spent six months infiltrating Drift's contributor network through fake trading personas, conference meetups, and malicious code — culminating in a $285 million crypto heist on April 1, 2026.

CyberX Qatar 2026 returns to the Grand Hyatt Doha on April 22 for its 31st Global Edition, bringing together 300+ prequalified delegates to explore AI's role in cyber offence, defense and resilience as Qatar's cybersecurity market heads toward USD 196 million by 2030.

A cyberattack on the European Commission's Amazon cloud has led to the theft of hundreds of gigabytes of data, including databases and employee information. This breach, the Commission's second this year, raises concerns about cloud security in both public and private sectors worldwide.

Google has released an emergency security update for Chrome addressing an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability. Users and IT teams are advised to update immediately — the flaw allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted webpage.

Exabeam has expanded its Agent Behaviour Analytics platform to cover AI tools including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini — as the UAE reports between 500,000 and 700,000 cyberattacks daily, with Iran-linked actors leveraging AI for cyber operations.

The Central Bank of Kuwait has launched the first cohort of its Advanced Cybersecurity Leaders Programme, offering experienced Kuwaiti banking professionals advanced training in cloud security, threat detection, and GIAC certifications in partnership with SANS Institute.

A sophisticated Android malware named NoVoice was found hidden in over 50 Google Play apps downloaded 2.3 million times. It roots infected devices and steals WhatsApp session data — a serious threat for GCC businesses that rely on WhatsApp for daily communications.

Palo Alto Networks researchers have shown how AI agents built on Google Cloud's Vertex AI can be compromised and turned against their owners — exfiltrating data, creating backdoors, and exposing cloud infrastructure. Here is what businesses deploying AI agents need to know.

Fraud attacks worldwide have risen 8% in the past year, driven by synthetic identities and sophisticated bots mimicking human behaviour. A new LexisNexis report reveals what is fuelling the surge — and why EMEA businesses are particularly exposed.

Notorious hacking group ShinyHunters claims to have stolen over 3 million Salesforce records, GitHub repositories, and AWS buckets from Cisco. With Cisco deeply embedded across GCC enterprise and government networks, regional security teams should treat this as an active exposure risk.

Iranian state media has named 18 technology companies — including UAE AI firm G42 and US giants Microsoft, Google, and Apple — as targets effective 1 April. Enterprises across the GCC operating on their cloud and AI infrastructure should treat this as an active threat.

As the Iran-Israel conflict extends into the digital domain, silent cyberattacks are emerging as a parallel front — targeting GCC energy, finance, and government systems with little warning.

CISA has added a critical Citrix NetScaler vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, confirming active in-the-wild abuse. Federal agencies have until April 2 to patch — here is everything your organization needs to know.

A critical Arbitrary File Read flaw in the Smart Slider 3 WordPress plugin has left nearly 500,000 websites exposed to credential theft. A patch is available — here is what you need to know.

North Korea-linked hackers compromised the widely-used Axios library in a supply chain attack, injecting malware capable of stealing login credentials across millions of apps on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Chinese APT group Red Menshen has quietly upgraded its BPFdoor malware, making it harder than ever to detect inside telecom, government, and critical infrastructure networks worldwide. Here's what security teams need to know.

In 2026, cyber and kinetic attacks are no longer separate — they're synchronised. Here's what hybrid warfare means for GCC and MENA enterprises right now

A new breakthrough from Google Quantum AI reveals a 20x reduction in the resources required to crack ECC encryption, moving the deadline for post-quantum migration to 2029 for global enterprises.

Most Gulf companies are pressing ahead with consulting projects despite the Iran conflict, redirecting budgets toward cyber security — forecast to grow 19% to $1.8 billion in 2026.

Microsoft begins auto-enabling passkey profiles across all Entra ID tenants, triggering the largest enterprise migration to passwordless authentication in history — as new data shows 87% of companies are deploying passkeys and 69% of consumers already have at least one.

The pro-Ukrainian threat actor Bearlyfy (Labubu) has escalated its campaign against Russian businesses, deploying a proprietary Windows ransomware strain dubbed GenieLocker to extort and sabotage major enterprises.

Censys researchers discovered CTRL, a new Russian remote access toolkit. It is distributed via malicious Windows shortcuts disguised as private key folders and can keylog, steal credentials, hijack RDP sessions, and create reverse tunnels, all while leaving minimal traces.

At RSAC 2026, the SANS Institute revealed a historic milestone: for the first time, all five of its most dangerous attack techniques are driven by artificial intelligence, including AI-generated zero-day exploits for as low as $116 and autonomous attack chains that can finish in under 10 minutes.

A recent Atlantic Council report highlights that spyware brokers and middlemen are central to the global commercial surveillance industry, bypassing export controls and aiding governments with limited tech capabilities in accessing powerful hacking tools despite sanctions.

Researchers discover a sophisticated new payment skimmer using WebRTC data channels to bypass traditional security filters, targeting a 2026 vulnerability in Adobe Commerce and Magento sites.

The alleged mastermind behind LeakBase, one of the world's largest stolen credential marketplaces, has been arrested in Russia as law enforcement secures data on over 147,000 cybercriminals.

New research from HID’s 2026 State of Security and Identity Report reveals a global shift toward unified identity systems, as 73% of organizations move to balance robust security with rising ethical and privacy demands.

Google Threat Intelligence VP Sandra Joyce told RSAC 2026 that the cybersecurity industry must move beyond sharing intelligence to actively disrupting threat actors — using legal tools, coordinated takedowns, and AI-powered defences to stay ahead of increasingly automated adversaries.

Google has officially closed its $32 billion acquisition of cloud security firm Wiz — the largest in the company's history — and unveiled a broad suite of AI-powered security tools at RSAC 2026, spanning agentic SOC automation, dark web threat intelligence and advanced cloud protection capabilities.

CISA has added five actively exploited security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — including three Apple vulnerabilities linked to the sophisticated DarkSword iOS exploit chain — ordering all US federal agencies to patch by April 3, 2026.

At RSAC 2026 in San Francisco, the cybersecurity industry's biggest gathering, a new race is underway: which company will emerge as the defining AI-native security platform of the next decade — and whether legacy vendors can adapt fast enough to stay relevant.

A new NCC Group report finds that Iran-linked cyberattacks have grown in volume, geographic scope and actor diversity, with organisations tied to Israel or the US remaining at heightened risk — even as Iran's own domestic internet access remains heavily restricted.

MVP Tech has completed its full transition to Convergint by the end of March, uniting over two decades of regional engineering expertise with the global reach of a $2.5 billion systems integration leader to deliver advanced security and technology solutions across the Middle East and Africa.

GISEC Global 2026 will debut the Cyber Diplomacy Forum in Dubai this May, uniting governments, diplomats and cybersecurity leaders to tackle cross-border cyber threats and digital resilience on a global stage.

NCC Group has warned that cyber activity linked to the Iran conflict has intensified and spread well beyond the Middle East, with hacktivist operations growing in volume and reach while Iranian state-linked groups continue to operate despite domestic internet restrictions.

Cloudsmith has unveiled threat intelligence enrichment for software packages at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, enabling DevSecOps teams to automatically assess risk, block unsafe dependencies, and enforce compliance policies across their software supply chains.

Datadog's Bits AI Security Analyst for Cloud SIEM is now generally available, promising to cut alert investigation times by up to 98% and reduce mean time to resolution by more than 90%.

The 4th Edition MENA Cyber Security Conference 2026 brings together global leaders and experts to address emerging cyber threats, AI security, and digital resilience strategies.

The UAE Cybersecurity Council warns of a 40% rise in cyberattacks targeting remote workers, driven by vulnerabilities in home networks and personal devices.

An Iran-linked cyberattack on Stryker wiped over 200,000 devices worldwide using internal systems, highlighting growing global cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities.

As the war in Iran escalates, pro-Iranian "chaos agents" like Handala are shifting their focus to U.S. soil, targeting medical giants and critical infrastructure in a new wave of digital warfare.

From Saudi Arabia's PDPL enforcement to the DIFC’s pioneering AI regulations, 2026 is a pivotal year for cyber compliance and risk management in the Middle East.

The UAE NESA framework is the Kingdom's primary cybersecurity standard. Here's what it requires, who must comply, and where most businesses fall short.

Organisations operating in the Middle East face a cyber threat landscape shaped by regional geopolitics, state-sponsored actors, and rapid digitalisation. This guide covers what MENA-specific cyber risk assessment services include, who needs them, and what to look for in a provider.

The GlassWorm malware campaign is actively compromising Python repositories by using stolen GitHub tokens to inject malicious code into setup.py, main.py, and app.py files, targeting developers and ML projects worldwide.

The North Korean hacking group Konni uses spear-phishing emails and the KakaoTalk messaging platform to deploy EndRAT, a remote access trojan, and propagate malware across compromised networks.

A new cyber espionage campaign targeting Ukraine deploys the DRILLAPP backdoor, leveraging Microsoft Edge debugging features to bypass detection and access sensitive device resources.

Multiple ClickFix campaigns are distributing the MacSync macOS infostealer through fake AI tool installers, leveraging social engineering and malicious terminal commands.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has added a Wing FTP vulnerability to its KEV catalog, warning of active exploitation that exposes sensitive server path information.

Loblaw Companies Limited has reported a data breach affecting a limited portion of its IT network. Customer contact information, including names, phone numbers, and emails, may have been accessed, while financial and health data remain secure.

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a sophisticated attack campaign where hackers exploit Microsoft Teams and Windows Quick Assist to gain remote access and deploy a stealthy malware known as A0Backdoor.

An Iran-linked hacking group has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack that disrupted systems at medical device manufacturer Stryker, raising concerns about escalating cyber retaliation targeting U.S. organisations.

Authorities in the UAE have warned residents and organisations about the increasing threat of wiper malware—one of the most destructive types of cyberattacks capable of permanently erasing data and crippling digital infrastructure.

More than 2.1 million digital identities were compromised in Morocco during AFCON 2025, according to a joint report by Kaspersky and INTERPOL, exposing widespread cyber threats tied to fraudulent ticketing platforms and malware campaigns.

Dubai, UAE - MENACyberwire examines the escalating cyber threats targeting the UAE's vital sectors, with ransomware and sophisticated supply chain attacks posing significant risks to the nation's critical infrastructure.

Ransomware attacks are intensifying globally, leveraging AI and advanced tactics. This article explores the heightened threat to MENA enterprises and outlines essential strategies for defense and resilience in the face of evolving cyber threats.

A new state-sponsored cyber espionage campaign, 'Desert Shadow', is targeting critical infrastructure and government entities across the GCC and MENA region, employing advanced tactics for data exfiltration and long-term network persistence.

Security teams worldwide are scrambling to patch a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in ConnectWise ScreenConnect that allows remote attackers to seize full control of administrative instances.

As cybercriminals leverage generative AI to craft sophisticated, localized lures, the UAE's banking infrastructure faces a new breed of social engineering threats that bypass traditional filters.

Following the resurgence of several high-profile ransomware-as-a-service operators, global security experts question the long-term effectiveness of multi-national infrastructure takedowns.

Global adversaries are weaponizing generative AI to penetrate GCC financial and energy sectors, forcing a strategic shift in regional cyber defense and incident response.

As generative AI lowers the barrier for sophisticated social engineering, GCC financial hubs are recalibrating their defensive postures against a surge in hyper-personalized business email compromise.

As generative AI lowers the barrier for cybercriminals, Gulf banks face a sophisticated new breed of business email compromise that bypasses traditional security filters.

Global security agencies warn that state-sponsored actors are increasingly using legitimate system tools to evade detection, forcing a fundamental shift in defensive strategies.

As the Snowflake breach ripples through global enterprises, GCC organizations must reconcile ambitious cloud-first strategies with the harsh reality of credential-based attacks.

As state-sponsored actors pivot toward exploiting unmanaged edge devices, GCC organizations must rethink their perimeter security strategy to protect critical infrastructure.

A massive supply chain attack via the Polyfill.io service has compromised over 100,000 websites, forcing global security teams to scramble for mitigation strategies and alternative CDNs.

A deep dive into the 'Salt Typhoon' campaign reveals how state-sponsored actors are compromising the very systems designed for legal surveillance to conduct global espionage.

A deep dive into the technical mechanics of the APT29 campaign that successfully infiltrated Microsoft senior leadership accounts using legacy vulnerabilities.

A multinational law enforcement effort has dismantled the backend of the world’s most prolific ransomware-as-a-service operation, seizing servers and recovering decryption tools.

As global threat actors pivot from traditional malware to sophisticated identity-based attacks, GCC enterprises face a critical juncture in securing their digital borders.

As global cybercriminals weaponize generative AI to bypass traditional email filters, MENA enterprises must recalibrate their human-centric security strategies to defend against hyper-localized attacks.

As infostealer logs flood the dark web, MENA enterprises face a growing crisis of identity-based attacks that bypass traditional security measures.

New intelligence indicates that threat actors are leveraging localized large language models to bypass traditional security filters across UAE and Saudi financial sectors.