UAE target of cyber attacks after Israel deal, official says

The United Arab Emirates was the target of cyber attacks after establishing formal ties with Israel, the Gulf Arab state’s cyber security head said on Sunday according to a report by Reuters.

The UAE in August broke with decades of Arab policy when it agreed to forge ties with Israel in a move that angered Palestinians and some Muslim states and communities. Bahrain and Sudan have followed suit, although Sudan has yet to formalise the agreement.

During an onstage interview at a conference in Dubai, Mohamed Hamad al-Kuwaiti said:

Our relationship, for example, with the normalisation with Israel really opened a whole huge attacks from some other activists against the UAE.

Kuwaiti said the financial sector was targeted but did not elaborate. He did not say if any of the attacks were successful or provide details on who the perpetrators were.

He also told the conference that the number of cyber attacks in the UAE increased sharply after the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Kuwaiti said traditionally many attacks in the region originate from Iran, without specifying who is behind them.

Iran has also said that it has been a victim of hacking.

Israeli sources: ‘Tel Aviv uses UAE to spy on Qatar, Iran and Hezbollah’