The most recent cyber wins in the Middle East include the UAE CSC's Centre of Excellence and Operation Ramz, which arrested 201 people for cybercrimes..png?width=1920&height=1080&name=UAE%20Cybersecurity%20Centre%20of%20Excellence%20and%20Cybercrime%20Takedown%20in%20Middle%20East%20(1).png)
Since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, there has been an increase in coverage around cyberactivity in the Middle East. Several of the first operations carried out by the US and Israel in the initial attack were cyber-enabled, and these programs, carried out by CYBERCOM and SPACECOM, “disrupted communications and sensor networks across the area of responsibility, leaving the adversary without the ability to see, coordinate or respond effectively”. Within a month, Iran had also levied cyberattacks on public cameras in Israel, while threatening more cyberattacks on American tech companies. Shortly after the attacks in late February, there was a clear surge in cyberattacks on other coudntries in the Middle East, as part of a wave of hacktivist activity. Despite having the top tech leader in Middle Eastern government, Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, as the head of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Cyber Security Council (CSC), the UAE has not been spared from the onslaught of cyber attacks.
According to Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, the UAE has seen a significant increase in daily cyberattacks. While the 200,000 daily cyberattacks the UAE faced before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran could be considered high, the current count of around 800,000 daily cyberattacks easily dwarfs the original number. Al Kuwaiti reported that these attacks are more sophisticated than before, with hackers coordinating several means of reaching systems, organizations, and individuals. While the political climate is a key factor in the increase in cyberattacks, it’s also worth noting that advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are believed to have propelled the number of attacks levied at scale.
The UAE’s CSC is working to minimize the growing cyber threat. The organization uncovered 350 hacking groups, 320 amateur hackers, and hundreds of others connected with malicious software activity as they observed nearly 5,000 Telegram channels. Dr. Al Kuwaiti has also encouraged the public to improve their own cybersecurity posture by keeping devices up to date and keeping better password security. The UAE CSC also recently established an Operational Technology (OT) Center of Excellence (CoE) that will monitor cyber activity before incidents occur in a proactive approach to cybersecurity. Al Kuwaiti called the move "the foundation for sustainable, long-term shared value, strengthening national readiness and cyber resilience".
The UAE’s new organization is not the only recent win for cybersecurity in the Middle East. On May 18th, 2026, INTERPOL announced that they had “coordinated a first-of-its-kind cybercrime crackdown across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)”, an operation that resulted in the arrests of 201 cybercriminals and the classification of 382 suspects. The project, called Operation Ramz, was supported by 13 countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, and the UAE. In the press release, INTERPOL’s Director of Cybercrime, Neal Jetton, praised the teamwork that drove the crackdown: “In a world where cybercriminals exploit the digital landscape without borders, Operation Ramz demonstrates the effectiveness of global collaboration. INTERPOL is dedicated to working with its member countries and private sector partners to take down malicious infrastructure, disrupt criminal groups and bring perpetrators to justice.”
The operation took place from October 2025 to February 2026. The press release highlights the work in Qatar to identify and secure compromised devices, Oman investigators securing a malware-infected server that held sensitive information, Algerian officials dismantling a phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) website, Moroccan authorities collecting devices - a server, computer, mobile phone, and a hard drive - used for phishing operations, and how Jordanian police located the computer behind several financial fraud scams and uncovered the 15 operators of the schemes (who were also victims of human trafficking under the false pretense of legal employment).
The victims, who were recruited from their home countries in Asia, are unfortunately just some of the latest victims of an increasingly common crime on the continent. Jordanian law enforcement have since arrested two individuals on suspicion of organizing the trafficking and scamming plot. Several more people connected to the other crimes are also being investigated, taken into custody, or are otherwise currently subject to judicial proceedings. The collective work of Operation Ramz led to the seizures of 53 servers and the identification of 3,867 victims.
In addition to collaboration, this cybercrime takedown was largely enabled by the sharing of cyber-related intelligence from INTERPOL partners, namely Group-IB, Kaspersky, the Shadowserver Foundation, Team Cyrmru, and Trend AI. These organizations all followed illegal cyber activities and tracked down servers. The Ramz investigators disseminated “nearly 8,000 pieces of crucial data and intelligence” over the project. This emphasis on collecting intelligence, also reflected in the UAE CoE’s mission, demonstrates that prioritizing information sharing and international collaboration has the potential to secure the Middle East’s cyberspace.