UAE – Where Money Pays – Do You Want to be a Cyber Warrior?
What can money buy you? An expedited entry into the Cyber Warfare realm – that’s for sure. Did you know that throughout the last couple of years the UAE has managed to successfully position itself as a top-dollar Cyber Security Research destination with countless number of U.S based companies looking for ways to make money in the process of outsourcing and offering “know-how”? Keep reading.
Based on a newly published article – it’s becoming apparently evident that the UAE is aiming to further position itself as a top-dollar Security and Intelligence contractor destination – with a variety of HR-recruiting type of offers seeking the knowledge and expertise of U.S based Security Researchers companies and Intelligence Analysts including the active “know-how” and methodology acquisition of the purpose of working on currently active Offensive and Defensive Cyber Warfare programs successfully piggybacking on its U.S-based counter-part – the NSA.
What is the UAE up to in terms of Information Security and proactive Cyber Warfare standards and procedures? The most recently released “National Cyber Security Strategy” tackles the following key points:
- Prepare and prevent: Aims to raise the minimum protection level of cyber assets and ensure compliance to the UAE’s cyber security standards
- Respond and recover: Aims to develop incident and response management capabilities and improve threat neutralisation capabilities
- Build national capability: Aims to inform and educate the public and workforce about cyber security and promote research in the field
- Foster collaboration: Aims to collaborate with international bodies to catalyse cyber security efforts nationally and internationally
- Provide national leadership: Aims to develop initiatives to guide the implementation of the National Cyber Security strategy.
It should be noted that proactively investing in Cyber Warfare-based type of research investment might be the right approach to build a national-based type of Cyber Warfare doctrine and strategy. How would leaks be tackled? Who would be responsible for building the technical and HR-driven based “know-how” in terms of building the nation’s Offensive Cyber Warfare program? Keep reading.
Going through the UAE’s Legislative Cybercrime and Information Security based type of legislative material – it should be noted that the country currently possesses a pretty decent understanding of various legislative measures to ensure a proper and smooth Information Security driven type of critical infrastructure further positioning the country as a leading Cyber Warfare power exclusively relying on outsourcing and talent and acquisition “know-how”. How would the UAE’s U.S based counterpart – the NSA respond?
Basically the NSA would properly ensuring a smooth and proper enlisting of the country as an emerging Cyber Warfare power successfully driving its growth through a vast majority of U.S based companies and organizations. What the UAE should keep in mind while positioning itself as a Cyber Warfare “test-bed” for U.S based companies and organizations is that it would be definitely raising the eyebrows of International partners including cyber-espionage groups looking for ways to steal information including the implementation of a successful IA (Information Assurance) policy that would further position the country as a leading offensive “test-bed” for Cyber Warfare practices and “know-how” acquisition.
Do you need to properly position yourself as a Cyber Jihad and R&D research hub? Definitely. What the UAE should keep in mind is that the over-supply of U.S based vendors and organizations interested in investing in the UAE could definitely result in an increase in cyber attacks courtesy of International partners that also includes the NSA looking for ways to obtain access to technical collection including “know-how” expertise including possible leaks.
Are you a U.S based Cyber Security company or an Intelligence Analyst looking for ways to expand the portfolio of services? Consider the UAE as your primary destination stop.
Related resources:
