4 yıl önce

Activists increase cyber attacks on UAE after its deal with Israel

The country's cybersecurity chief says there's been an increase in cyber attacks by anti-UAE activists, with the country's financial sector being targeted.

AP

A couple look at a picture on a mobile phone as the sun sets over the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 18, 2018.

The United Arab Emirates has been the target of cyber attacks after establishing formal ties with Israel.

"Our relationship, for example, with the normalisation with Israel really opened a whole huge attacks from some other activists against the UAE," the Gulf Arab state's cyber security head, Mohamed Hamad al-Kuwaiti, said during an onstage interview at a conference in Dubai on Sunday.

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.

Al-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.

Al-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.