Gulf states urged to deepen cyber ties as ransomware risks grow
Gulf states urged to deepen cyber ties as ransomware risks grow
Publish Date: 2026-06-10 23:38:00
Source Domain: www.agbi.com
- GCC urged to copy EU model
- Gulf must ensure ‘operational resilience’
- AI both a threat and a strength
Gulf states should forge deeper cyber ties as AI and ransomware create new vulnerabilities for critical national infrastructure, a cybersecurity expert has said.
Despite billions being invested in digital transformation, the GCC is exposed to many of the same threats facing Europe and North America, said Professor Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity specialist at the UK’s University of Surrey.
The EU has spent decades building systems for sharing intelligence and coordinating responses to cyber incidents through bodies such as the bloc’s law enforcement agency Europol and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity.
“One European country gets attacked, shares that intelligence quickly and others can put protections in place before they become victims themselves,” Woodward told AGBI.
While Gulf states cooperate on cybersecurity through regional forums, including the GCC Ministerial Committee for Cybersecurity, “what Europe has done as a collective is form a centre of expertise,” he said. “You get a force multiplier. You get strength in numbers.”
Daniel Valle, CEO of tech services company SCC Middle East, which this month opened its first regional headquarters in the UAE, said digital infrastructure was “both a strategic asset and a point of vulnerability”.
Daniel Valle, CEO of SCC Middle East
“The region’s advantage will come not only from the pace of technology adoption, but from the quality of deployment and operational resilience behind it,” said Valle, who is speaking at the Data Center Infrastructure and Cloud Summit this week in Abu Dhabi.
Woodward said data centres and telecommunications networks are increasingly run by businesses, making information-sharing between governments and operators vital.
More than 80 percent of successful attacks still begin with phishing emails, stolen…
