UAE public and private sector targeted in global hack

The UAE’s Cyber Security Council on Monday confirmed that 634 public and private companies and organisations were targeted of a huge global hack.

The attacks aimed to leak data from vital and strategic national sectors, state news agency Wam reported.

A threat actor known as rose87168 claimed to have breached Oracle Cloud’s servers, according to Dr Mohamed AlKuwaiti, the UAE’s head of cyber security, resulting in the leak of approximately six million customer records and sensitive password data globally.

He said about 140,000 entities worldwide may have been affected. Of the 634 UAE entities, 30 were government entities, 13 were private and the rest fell under other categories.

The UAE Cyber Security Council said emergency cyber systems were activated to safeguard the UAE’s cyberspace and strengthen its protection against hacking. It also urged all institutions to enhance their cyber security defences, raise their cyber readiness levels, and report suspicious activity.

Oracle Cloud issued a statement to UK technology website The Register to deny its infrastructure was compromised, saying none of its customers suffered a breach or lost data. The National has contacted Oracle Cloud for further comment.

Last year, several cyber attacks by terrorist groups were foiled by UAE authorities. Systems were able to prevent the attacks on “a number of vital and strategic sectors in the country”, Wam reported in February last year.

And in July, UAE law enforcement called for stricter penalties, new legislation and more tech training for their officers to fight a rise in cyber attacks.

Lt Gen Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, deputy chief of police and public security in Dubai, said it was crucial for legal amendments to address the rapid evolution of non-traditional electronic crimes, using AI and deepfakes.