UAE's first line of cyber defence is 'the community,' says Al Kuwaiti

Dubai – The United Arab Emirates is doubling down on its ambition to become an “AI nation,” but it will only succeed if the world stands together against the sophisticated cyber threats, the country’s top cybersecurity official, Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti said in a keynote address at GISEC Global 2026.

“Cybersecurity tension is the responsibility of everybody. Our first line of defence is still the community,” he said, highlighting the role of citizens and organizations in detecting and reporting threats.

Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, head of cybersecurity for the UAE government, said that cybersecurity has become a frontline issue in an era of geopolitical tension, AI acceleration, and rapidly expanding digital infrastructure.

Age of crisis

Al-Kuwaiti noted the UAE faced 800,000 cyber-attacks during the on-going regional crisis, targeting critical infrastructures like energy, telecom, and aviation.

“This is where we saw not only the critical infrastructures was one of the major attack entities in data perspective, energy sector, telecom sectors, as well as aviation, government, healthcare-you name it,” he said.

With the subject gaining popularity, he also pointed to capacity building and the human element as the core.

“We focus on those five pillars of cybersecurity that we always spoke about, from governance to policy to building of those capacities to partnership to the mission that we are really focused on, the security and safety as well as defending and protecting is very important to us,” he said.

Culture of cyber security

He stressed the importance of information sharing, as seen during the geopolitical aspect, with rapid, coordinated effort between government agencies, private-sector partners and international allies who shared threat intelligence in real time.

Al Kuwaiti, while speaking at the Arab Media Summit also said, more than 85% of cyber threats begin with an incorrect or unintended click by an average user. Bringing together the community of women, youth and kids is considered the first phase of security.

“Our curriculums, as a matter of fact, have already embedded so many things in the cyber domain. With the AI now in everybody's hand, we need to ensure the culture of cyber security,” he added, “The culture of hygiene is already there, and we thank all our partners who actually really helped us in this respect.”

The UAE is also preparing for the next major technological shift: quantum computing, according to Al Kuwaiti.