A recent high-level US-UAE Cyber security Forum held in Dubai earlier this month was organised by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The American Business Council in Dubai, Dubai Chamber and Dubai Internet City to connect American companies and experts with leaders in the UAE's cybersecurity community and top government officials and business leaders. The event, sponsored by Cisco, aimed to inform public policy discussions in the UAE, drive bilateral collaboration in cyber security and encourage cooperation amongst industry stakeholders.

As much as digitisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) provides opportunities to businesses, consumers and citizens, they also create greater opportunities for attackers as modern networks and their components constantly evolve and spawn new attack vectors. The Cisco 2016 Midyear Cyber security Report confirms that adversaries have become even more focused on generating revenue, as ransomware becomes a particularly effective moneymaker and enterprise users emerge as the preferred target of some operators.

"The Industrialisation of hacking has launched a new era of professional, entrepreneurial, and resourceful cyber criminals operating in a high-growth hacker economy. Increasingly profit-driven, their attacks are sophisticated, often targeted, efforts controlled by well-funded organised crime and occasionally driven by political agendas. Cyber security has become a vital issue for governments and companies across all sectors of the economy, from finance and healthcare to critical infrastructure and retail," said Shukri Eid, Managing Director - East Region, Cisco Middle East.

Underscoring the seriousness of recent cyber attacks, a common effort is emerging to address the need for greater collaboration among business and government stakeholders to minimize the impact of cyber attacks and strengthen national security. During the US-UAE Cybersecurity Forum, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched  a ' Cyber Working Group' to ensure a sustained and constructive dialogue between American companies and the public and private sectors in the UAE and other GCC countries.

"Public-private sector partnerships are critical to the future of cyber security, as collaborative information sharing will ultimately help define global security standards. It's critically important that we stop thinking about security as a defence-centric approach that is sold by fear, uncertainty and doubt. We need to start thinking about simplifying security as a requirement to drive new innovative business models that actually help the business go forward," added Shukri Eid.