A single piece of malicious code could ground aircraft, cut power or bring a water network to a standstill, the UAE’s top cybersecurity official has warned as threats to critical infrastructure grow more targeted and destructive.
Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government, said the country is facing an average of around 600,000 cyberattacks a day, with that figure rising to roughly 800,000 a day at peak periods. He attributed the scale directly to ongoing conflict: ‘It’s still a lot; why? Because there’s a war. And as long as you have a war, there are a lot of things that you try to enter and extract data and information from.’
Al Kuwaiti divided the threats into three categories: cybercrime, cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare. The first covers theft, fraud, espionage and disinformation. The second exploits social media, online games and other digital platforms to spread extremist ideas and erode social cohesion. The third, he said, is the most direct threat to the country’s functioning.
Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure: airports, energy and water
‘What we have seen in recent times is an attempt to strike, wipe out and destroy the digital infrastructure,’ he said, pointing to electricity, water, aviation and energy networks as the sectors most at risk.
The UAE Cybersecurity Council said it had addressed cyberattacks targeting the aviation, energy and education sectors, with intrusion attempts contained before attackers could affect the continuity of critical systems and services, according to the Philippine News Agency, citing the council.
Al Kuwaiti illustrated the threat with a direct example: ‘Imagine an airport and a plane, and a little bit of virus entered and stopped this whole plane and affected the whole sector.’ He called the possibility of a cyberattack affecting aircraft one of the most serious threats the UAE faces.
The UAE Government Portal describes the UAE Cybersecurity Council, which Al Kuwaiti chairs, as responsible for building the country’s legal and regulatory framework covering all categories of cybercrime and maintaining a National Cyber Incident Response Plan for coordinated action when incidents occur.
The ‘lone wolf’ threat and the challenge of online radicalisation
On cyberterrorism, Al Kuwaiti said the threat had shifted toward the ‘lone wolf’ model, in which one individual is radicalised and acts alone. ‘There will be one person, and his mind will be brainwashed. He will tell you he is the one who will make this change, even if it starts with one person.’
He also raised concern about violent content in children’s games. ‘All children’s games are killing games,’ he said. ‘So how do you tell these children that these are games? This is a virtual world, and this is a real world.’ The challenge, he said, is teaching young people to distinguish between online content and real-world behaviour.
To support families, the UAE operates a Digital Wellbeing Support Line on 80091, providing professional advice on daily digital situations for all family members. The line, run in Arabic, was launched as the first initiative of the Digital Wellbeing Council.
The UAE’s National Cybersecurity Strategy, launched in 2019 by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, is built on five pillars and encompasses 60 initiatives aimed at securing existing and emerging technologies.
Al Kuwaiti said awareness cannot rest with specialists alone. ‘Society is the first line of defence,’ he said, framing the country’s overall approach as a ‘whole nation’ effort. The Cyber Run & Ride, a community event held at Abu Dhabi Corniche in January 2026, was one expression of that philosophy, using sport to carry cybersecurity awareness beyond government offices.
His practical advice to residents is brief: pause before clicking unfamiliar links, verify information before acting on it, and treat online content with scepticism. ‘Today, with modern technology, seeing is no longer believing,’ he said.
He saved a specific warning for parents: ‘If you don’t talk to your child, someone else might talk to him, mislead him or deceive him.’ The Claims Journal reported the council had previously flagged a qualitative shift in methods used by groups targeting UAE networks, including ransomware deployment and systematic phishing campaigns across the aviation and energy sectors.
Al Kuwaiti said the evolution of threats would not stop as technology advances through artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous systems and drones, making human awareness the one constant the country can depend on: ‘What does not change here is the individual.’
