The UAE has to invest in training its own security pros as it has become a priority in the cyber-crime war, due to the amount to trained professionals dwindling.

The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington recently stated that cyber-attacks in the region cost $1 billion dollars a year, and isn’t going to decrease. The institute also said that the Middle East was filled with cyber criminals with the widest use of technologies ad high-value targets.

V.P. of Cisco Middle East, Mike Weston said, “Although there were more than a million cyber security positions available worldwide, the shortage of professionals to fill them was likely to grow rapidly.”

Cisco’s Annual Security Report showed the deficit of cyber security workers would rise to 1.5 million by the year 2019.

“More and more organizations are looking to digitization to compete in an increasingly global economy, while inadvertently increasing exposure to cyber-attacks,” Weston stated further.

Online Security company, Whispering Bell’s David Michaux said that “We seem to have a lot of thinkers who advise companies on how to change strategies and reorganize their security. We need more people to do hands on fixing.”

As the technology of the UAE grows, so does the potential for a greater increase in cybercrime.

ITsec’s Managing Director, Amir Kolahzadeh stated that “85 percent of UAE residents were online. The UAE is a major target because of its glamour and vision.”

With “Smart Cities”, and other innovative ideas, organizations are becoming more vulnerable to cyber-attacks due to the lack of trained staff. It seems the U.S. isn’t the only one facing unsurmountable odds when it comes to the never ending, always evolving, cyber war. We often forget, one of the biggest things we can have in common with the world is our problems. Cybercrime plagues the entire globe, and as technology advances, so do the techniques to exploit any weaknesses.  It even seems like law Enforcement is fighting a losing battle; with things like the NSA tools leak, the Russian hacking battles for the DNC and the Olympics, and others as well.

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