UAE IA Standards: Measuring Cyber Security Maturity

The UAE has become an emerging technology hub in a fast-evolving interconnected digital world while cyber-threats at a global scale are becoming far more complex, and increasingly inevitable.

The UAE has significant resources and is continuously raising the bar when it comes to innovation. At the same time, smart technologies, automation and technological advances make the region a particularly attractive target to threat actors. Effective cybersecurity strategies are moving from a standalone defensive approach to mandatory security programs representing the competitive advantage among whole organisations.

The UAE's federal body released the UAE Information Assurance (UAE IA) Standards on 25th June 2014, as part of the Cyber Security Framework, to manage the country's cyberspace.

Since the release of the UAE IA standard, the UAE and the globe, has seen a nearly exponential growth of cybersecurity landscape. The lates statistics from various sources depict an exponential growth of the cyber landscape while at the same time, offer trustworthy and actionable recommendations for thought-leaders and decision-makers.

Be aware of fraudsters taking advantage of the devastating incident in Beirut

As we have seen in the past, any major breaking news and large events draw the attention of cyber criminals, as they try to take advantage of such situations. It is devastating what happened in Beirut, and many countries have already sent help. 

As a cyber security professional, I would like to seize the opportunity and bring into people’s attention that malicious groups and fraudsters most probably will try to take advantage of the situation in order to profit from it. During such times there is a rise in different types of malicious communications such as, emails pretending to be from legitimate charities, spear phishing messages through all types of social media, even actual phone calls. 

This is a call to everyone to be vigilant, and especially to the security community to come together with a common message, to raise awareness. 

Please do your diligence if you want to help. Do not send money to charities that “pop-up” the last minute without any tangible evidence that these are legitimate. Do not trust links posted on social media about online donations. If you want to send financial aid, do that only through official channels (such as, official government sites). 

Whatever the reason in such difficult times, be always aware that there are malicious groups out there that they only care about taking advantage of such situations. Please keep in mind that every dollar given unintentionally to fraudsters, is a dollar that will be missed by the people who are affected from this unprecedented incident.