Missiles crossed the Gulf in February, and hackers armed with artificial intelligence followed.
The United Arab Emirates has detected and contained coordinated cyberattacks on the aviation, energy, and education sectors since February, when fighting began between Iran, Israel, and the U.S., the country’s Cyber Security Council said on August 10. Hackers have made about 800,000 attempts a day since February, four times the prewar level.
AI is writing the hackers’ phishing emails, hunting for flaws in software, and building malicious programs faster than the teams guarding those systems can close the gaps, said the council. Speed is what has changed most, because a weakness that once took days to turn into a working attack can now be exploited within hours, according to security firms working across the Gulf.
Iranian hackers have used AI at every step during the war, from choosing targets to writing malicious code and fake messages that get people to click, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research group. On August 18, the U.S. Justice Department charged 17 Iranians over a campaign running since 2013 that prosecutors say stole research and designs from 144 U.S. universities and 42 companies.
