TALKING POINT

Mike Chen, Senior Regional Sales Manager for the Middle East, Synology

Mike Chen, Senior Regional Sales Manager for the Middle East, Synology, discusses why recovery is now a boardroom priority.

Organisations in the Middle East are now operating in a highintensity threat landscape where cyberattacks are not isolated incidents but persistent operational challenges. In the UAE alone, authorities were intercepting between 90,000 and 200,000 cyberattacks per day as of February 18, 2026, with 128 confirmed cyber threat incidents already targeting the UAE entities since the beginning of 2026. Incidents involving ransomware attacks, government breaches, data leaks, and breach activities are increasingly targeting government administration, financial services, and the banking sector.

The UAE Government Cybersecurity Council further added that a significant percentage of these attacks were conducted by statesponsored advanced threat groups, alongside cybercriminal and hacktivist activity. Geopolitical friction, AI-driven disinformation, and shifting online narratives are escalating threats to critical sectors, especially government, finance, and banking.

The impact of these attacks extends beyond financial loss, often causing prolonged operational downtime and significant business disruption. At the same time, phishing and identity-based attacks are

Regulatory expectations across the Middle East are also evolving rapidly, placing greater emphasis on data protection, accountability, and operational continuity. evolving rapidly, with AI-driven techniques enabling highly personalised and context-aware attacks that are significantly harder to detect and prevent. In the UAE, organisations are already experiencing millions of attempted cyberattacks annually, with some incidents resulting in weeks of extended downtime and substantial financial consequences.

Despite increased investment in cybersecurity, many organisations remain heavily focused on prevention, often overlooking the equally critical aspect of recovery. The long-held assumption that‘ having backups equates to being protected’ is proving increasingly flawed. In many cases, backup systems are fragmented, insufficiently tested, or misaligned with real-world recovery requirements, leaving organisations vulnerable during incidents.

The challenge is further compounded by the growing complexity of digital ecosystems. As businesses expand across cloud, hybrid, and distributed environments, their data landscapes become more intricate, increasing both the attack surface and the difficulty of maintaining consistent protection. Additionally, supply chain vulnerabilities are emerging as a critical risk factor, with third-party breaches accounting for a rising proportion of cyber incidents.

Regulatory expectations across the Middle East are also evolving rapidly, placing greater emphasis on data protection, accountability, and operational continuity. Cyber-resilience is no longer just a technical necessity but a compliance requirement and a key component of corporate governance. Organizations must move beyond siloed security measures and adopt integrated, end-to-end data protection strategies. Cyber-resilience must be embedded as a defining capability, with regular validation, testing, and alignment with broader business continuity and disaster recovery frameworks. This includes ensuring visibility across the entire data estate, integrating security and recovery capabilities, and maintaining readiness to respond under pressure.

The benchmark for cyber-resilience has shifted. It is no longer about having backups, but about the speed and integrity of recovery. As AIpowered attacks grow more persistent, recovery can no longer remain a back-end IT function but a board-level measure of business continuity, customer trust, and institutional readiness. In this new era, true cybersecurity maturity is not measured by a claim of protection, but by the proven ability to restore operations and maintain trust. •

INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA 19