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.
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4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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ACL Elite (West) - fixtures
Monday, Sept 30
Al Sadd v Esteghlal (8pm)
Persepolis v Pakhtakor (8pm)
Al Wasl v Al Ahli (8pm)
Al Nassr v Al Rayyan (10pm)
Tuesday, Oct 1
Al Hilal v Al Shorta (10pm)
Al Gharafa v Al Ain (10pm)
Origin
Dan Brown
Doubleday
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Profile of RentSher
Started: October 2015 in India, November 2016 in UAE
Founders: Harsh Dhand; Vaibhav and Purvashi Doshi
Based: Bangalore, India and Dubai, UAE
Sector: Online rental marketplace
Size: 40 employees
Investment: $2 million
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5