UAE businesses experienced more cyberattacks than the regional average while leading the Middle East in Zero Trust cybersecurity adoption. The findings suggest that while UAE organisations understand Zero Trust principles, operational execution remains challenging.
UAE enterprises demonstrate remarkable commitment to cybersecurity investment, with 76.4% planning to increase security budgets over the next five years. This financial commitment suggests organisations view current gaps as temporary challenges rather than acceptable risks.
Over 45% of UAE organisations experienced cyberattacks in the past year. It has exceeded the wider Middle East and Africa average of 36%. According to Zoho Corp.'s 2026 State of Workplace Password Security report, the UAE showed impressive cybersecurity maturity, but also had some pretty worrying vulnerabilities, especially around identity security.
In practice, UAE organisations are dealing with three main identity-based threats: phishing attacks hitting 25.5% of businesses, malicious insider threats at 20%, and social engineering attacks targeting 16.4% of enterprises.
According to Hyther Nizam, CEO at Zoho Middle East and Africa, the UAE’s position as a regional digitalisation and AI leader makes it kind of an appealing target for cybercriminals. The country’s fast technological advancement creates both chances and weak spots that attackers look to exploit.
The report also points to a layered security landscape where 96% of organisations have response capabilities, with real-time threat detection and endpoint security measures. Still, that defensive strength seems to collide pretty strongly with how often attacks succeed.
UAE enterprises show exceptional Zero Trust maturity, with about 80% having put in place comprehensive strategies. This makes the country a regional leader in advanced cybersecurity frameworks, where every access attempt gets verified, no matter where it comes from or which user credentials are used.
The implementation depth is not always the same between organisations. Roughly 60% say they’re close to reaching zero standing privileges, while only 22% report they have fully done away with persistent administrative access. The remaining 18% then say they are still a long way off from that target, which really shows the gap between simply adopting the plan and actually finishing the whole job.
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Real-time threat detection dominates AI implementation priorities, with 70.6% of organisations deploying these capabilities. User behaviour analytics ranks 52.9%, reflecting a focus on identifying anomalous activity that could indicate insider threats or compromised accounts. This aligns with broader AI adoption trends across UAE businesses.
Despite advanced Zero Trust adoption, UAE organisations show concerning gaps in basic security measures. Over 43% lack proper identity and access management (IAM) systems, while more than 45% have not implemented multi-factor authentication or password management solutions.