UAE Government Cybersecurity Summit Returns to Abu Dhabi on 9 June 2026

The 3rd Government Cybersecurity Summit will take place in Abu Dhabi on 9 June 2026, convening more than 400 government officials, chief information security officers, senior security executives and technology decision-makers under one agenda: securing the UAE's digital future at a moment when the threat environment is advancing faster than at any previous point in the country's history.

The summit is hosted by the UAE Cyber Security Council and organised by Intellicon, with institutional support from the Ministry of Justice UAE, the Department of Government Enablement, the Department of Municipalities and Transport, and the UAE Banks Federation. Now in its third edition, the event has established itself as one of the most authoritative government-focused cybersecurity forums across the Gulf.

Why This Summit Matters in 2026

The timing of this year's gathering is difficult to overstate. The UAE Cyber Security Council confirmed earlier in 2026 that the country is absorbing between 600,000 and 800,000 breach attempts every single day, representing a three to four times increase from the baseline recorded at the start of the year. The composition of those attacks has shifted materially, from opportunistic disruption toward credible, targeted intrusion attempts against government networks, financial institutions and critical infrastructure.

Cyber incidents across the GCC have risen by nearly 40 per cent year on year, according to data presented at the CyberFirst UAE Summit in February 2026. The UAE achieved a perfect score in the Global Cybersecurity Index in 2024, earning recognition as a global Pioneering Model for cyber readiness. Sustaining that position requires continuous institutional investment, policy coordination and the kind of strategic exchange that this summit is designed to produce.

The national digital economy agenda, valued at more than AED 100 billion, requires cybersecurity to operate as a foundational layer rather than a supplementary control. The summit's theme, Securing the UAE's Digital Future, reflects that positioning directly. As detailed in the GCC Cybersecurity 2026 risk overview, the convergence of AI-driven threats, expanding digital public services and interconnected critical infrastructure has elevated government-sector cybersecurity to a board-level and cabinet-level priority across the Gulf.

Confirmed Speakers and Government Representation

The speaker programme draws from the highest levels of the UAE's public sector. Confirmed participants include the Chief Cyber Security and Infrastructure Officer at the Ministry of Justice UAE, the Chief Information Security Officer at The Emirates Group, the Principal Information Security Officer at the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, and senior security leadership from Abu Dhabi Customs, the General Pension and Social Security Authority, the Ministry of Culture, Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park, and Velora Aviation.

The depth of government ministry representation distinguishes this event from vendor-led conferences. The strategic conversations taking place at ministerial and departmental level inside the UAE government, on topics ranging from AI-driven threat response to workforce development and critical infrastructure protection, are directly relevant to enterprise security leaders in the private sector who need to anticipate how the policy and compliance environment will evolve.

For security leaders at organisations operating across Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC, the UAE Cyber Security Council's approach to cybersecurity governance carries direct regulatory implications. The Council's recent advisory on public sector data exposure and its confirmed disruption of coordinated ransomware and phishing campaigns against national platforms have each set precedents that other GCC regulators have followed.

Agenda Themes

The published agenda addresses several topics central to the current regional security landscape.

Workforce and skills pipeline alignment is a priority discussion item. The GCC faces a documented shortage of qualified security professionals. As explored in the analysis of the GCC cybersecurity talent crisis, many enterprises and government entities are operating with security leadership gaps that cannot be closed through traditional hiring alone. The summit's workforce session addresses how academic and certification programmes can be reshaped to produce candidates ready for AI-driven threat environments and emerging quantum computing risks.

The session on next-generation cyber defence technologies places the agenda directly in the context of AI-powered security operations. As documented on this site, 76 per cent of CISOs globally now rank AI-enabled attacks among their top priorities for 2026. The corresponding adoption of AI in defensive tooling is accelerating rapidly, and the government sector, combining sensitive data with legacy infrastructure and complex multi-agency connectivity, is both the most exposed and the most consequential environment in which to deploy those capabilities correctly.

Sponsors and Partners: Who Is in the Room

The sponsor roster for the 3rd Government Cybersecurity Summit signals which vendors are currently investing in UAE government security relationships. Official partners include Kaspersky as Official Cyber Resilience Partner, OPSWAT, Trend Micro and iblades.ai as Strategic Cybersecurity Partners, and Group-IB, Commvault and Delinea as Strategic Partners. Networking partners include ManageEngine, Veeam, Checkmarx and ThreatLocker.

The presence of Group-IB is particularly notable in the current threat context. The firm contributed technical threat intelligence to INTERPOL's Operation Ramz, the first coordinated cybercrime operation across the MENA region, which concluded earlier this year with 201 arrests and the seizure of 53 servers. Kaspersky similarly contributed technical data to that operation. Both firms bring direct regional threat intelligence experience to the summit's government audience.

The vendor landscape represented at this summit reflects the current procurement priorities of UAE government security: endpoint and infrastructure protection, identity and privilege management, application security, data protection and recovery, and AI-driven threat detection. For enterprise security teams benchmarking their own vendor relationships and assessing future-state requirements, the sponsor list provides a useful signal of where government-grade standards are pointing.

How to Attend

The 3rd Government Cybersecurity Summit takes place on 9 June 2026 in Abu Dhabi. Registration is open via the official summit website at govcybersecuritysummit.com. The event is designed for CISOs, CIOs, heads of cybersecurity, government security officers, risk leaders and technology decision-makers across the UAE's public and private sectors.

For context on the threat environment shaping discussions at the summit, the GCC Cybersecurity 2026 risk overview and the INTERPOL Operation Ramz report published on MENA Cyber Wire provide essential background reading ahead of 9 June.