Gulf businesses must learn to stress-test cyber risks like banks

A Gulf-focused op-ed argues that companies should treat cyber risk with the same discipline banks use for financial stress testing. The piece cites figures from the UAE Cyber Security Council reporting 128 confirmed cyber incidents affecting entities across the country between early 2026 and Feb. 18, including ransomware, government breaches and data leaks. It also references Kaspersky data for the GCC in the first eight months of 2025, citing more than 50 million blocked web and local threats, with password-stealer detections up 21% and spyware attacks up 34%. The author links cyber resilience to broader operational continuity, citing disruption to AWS cloud services in the UAE and Bahrain in March and Jaguar Land Rover’s 2025 attack, which paused production for about five weeks.