As cyberattacks across the GCC surge — rising nearly 40% year on year and surpassing 200,000 attempted intrusions per day in the UAE alone — regional organizations are being forced to rethink how they build resilience in an era defined by AI‑driven threats and hyperconnected digital ecosystems. The shift reflects a broader global pattern but is particularly acute in the Middle East, where digital transformation in government, energy, financial services, and smart‑city development is accelerating faster than existing defenses.

As the Middle East accelerates digital transformation across smart cities, fintech, AI, and critical infrastructure, cybersecurity risk is rising at an unprecedented pace. Organizations in the region experience the highest global breach costs because their average incident expenses reach $7.29 million which causes cyber resilience to become a vital requirement that board members must address.

Cybersecurity leaders say the region has reached an inflection point. “Cybersecurity is no longer an IT problem or a compliance exercise. It is about whether a nation keeps running, its economy, its public services, and preserves the trust of its citizens,” said Deep Chanda, Chief Officer at Ampcus Cyber. With attackers operating at “machine speed,” he noted, organizations relying on manual response or perimeter‑based controls “are already behind.”

The UAE’s ambition to build a digital economy exceeding Dh100 billion has further elevated cybersecurity from a technical requirement to a strategic enabler of growth. Chanda said the country is moving toward a security‑by‑design model where protection is built directly into digital services, platforms, and national infrastructure. “You cannot build a digital economy on speed alone. You build it on trust engineered by design,” he said.

One of the most significant market shifts is the rise of identity‑driven risk. With 70% of regional organizations now citing insiders as a major threat, traditional perimeter security is rapidly losing relevance. Enterprises in finance, energy, and government are adopting continuous verification, behavioral monitoring, and stricter privileged‑access controls. “Assume identity will be targeted and design security accordingly,” Chanda emphasized, pointing to escalating credential‑theft attacks and supply‑chain infiltration in the region.

Deep Chanda, Chief officer, Ampcus Cyber

A parallel challenge is the rapid introduction of AI and large language models (LLMs) into enterprise environments — both as operational tools and new threat vectors. UAE organizations, he said, are approaching AI deployment with structured governance controls around data access, model accountability, and security‑by‑design principles. “Strong governance enables innovation, it doesn’t slow it down,” Chanda noted, underscoring that responsible adoption is becoming the new competitive differentiator across industries adopting AI at scale.

Against this backdrop, the launch of the CISO Intelligence Council in Dubai reflects growing demand for structured collaboration among the region’s top cybersecurity leaders. The invitation‑only platform, established by Ampcus Cyber, aims to facilitate intelligence-sharing, threat briefings, and cross‑sector coordination at a time when UAE and Saudi enterprises face rising breach costs and an increasingly complex digital footprint. The Council positions Dubai as a regional nerve center for cybersecurity strategy, resilience planning, and CISO‑to‑CISO collaboration.

The CISO Intelligence Council functions as a dedicated platform which serves CISOs because its design specifically accommodates their needs. The Council will convene security leaders across banking and finance, healthcare, telecom, fintech, government, and critical infrastructure to address emerging threats, evolving compliance landscapes, and the increasing complexity of digital ecosystems.

As critical sectors — from utilities and healthcare to logistics and manufacturing — expand their operational technology footprints, experts say cybersecurity is now inseparable from national uptime and public safety. Ultimately, Chanda noted, resilience in the Middle East’s digital era is defined by “uptime, service continuity, and trust.”