A Struggle for Cyber Leadership: Is Riyadh Outperforming Abu Dhabi?

French website Intelligence Online published a report stating that Saudi Arabia’s efforts to develop its cyber capabilities are beginning to bear fruit against the decline of its neighbor and rival, the United Arab Emirates.

The kingdom is determined to play a regional role and therefore uses soft and hard power to bolster its efforts to attract the latest technologies.

The report confirmed that Dubai is no longer the only cyber hub in the Gulf region, as evidenced by the ongoing negotiations between the organizers of the International Cybersecurity Forum (FIC), the leading trade fair for the French cyber sector.

The French Gendarmerie Force and the French corporate intelligence group Avisa Partners are organizing the exhibition’s current edition. Avisa Partners is also considering organizing a version of the exhibition in the Middle East but has not yet decided where it will be held.

The UAE has demonstrated clear leadership in this sector, but Saudi Arabia and Qatar are seeking to strengthen their own domestic cyber sector.

Trade fairs symbolize the ongoing battle for cyber influence among Gulf states, an aspect of Saudi Arabia’s soft power strategy vis-à-vis the dominance of its neighbor the United Arab Emirates.

To challenge the GISEC Cybersecurity Trade Fair in Dubai, Saudi Arabia is now holding the new Black Hat Conference, the regional version of the US Black Hat Cybersecurity Conference.

Such events clearly show Riyadh’s long-term policy to strengthen its role as a new hub for the cyber sector in the Gulf region and Africa.

 

Struggle for Political Influence

Riyadh is aggressively pursuing its goals, so it has begun to force companies wishing to operate in the kingdom to establish a local headquarters there.

In this way, it aims to counter the strategies of many companies that have established a representative office in Dubai to serve the Saudi market.

Set to go into effect in January 2024, the rule has persuaded Japan’s Trend Micro to set up its Middle East and Africa head office in Riyadh under the supervision of Moataz Ben Ali, a former local dealer for Microsoft, IBM, and SAP.

Russia’s Kaspersky Group opened an office in Riyadh in April, followed in November by an office by Emirati distributor AmiViz. Similarly, other companies, such as the US intelligence company Intel 471, decided to prioritize the Saudi market over the UAE, which remained dominant until then.

With Saudi Arabia’s belated arrival in the cyber sector, its sovereign wealth funds have begun to make huge investments, notably the Public Investment Fund, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman plans to reorganize the sector and strengthen its centralization.

As in the UAE, Saudi Arabia has not forgotten the cyber offensive side of business as it strives to develop its cyber sector, and this aspect of business was given in part to Haboob Company, which was established in 2018 by order of the former advisor to bin Salman Saud al-Qahtani, and attracted the best hackers of the Royal Court led by Saleh al-Haqbani to carry out cyber-attack operations for the kingdom under the supervision of the central authority.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s efforts are taking advantage of what has been happening recently in the UAE, where for a few months, the defense and cybersecurity sectors have been trying to reverse their dependence on imports in favor of the export campaign.

Through the business network created by National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed, the UAE is finalizing the centralization of several key economic sectors, including the cyber sector.

This has led to the creation of state-owned conglomerates such as EDGE Group and Group 42 (G42), which has helped redirect R&D spending and investment outside the country.

This export drive is primarily aimed at Muslim countries in Asia—particularly Malaysia and Indonesia—and Africa, where CPX hosted the cyber-attack and its CEO Khaled al-Melhi led an Indonesian delegation on December 22, and in August, EDGE Group created a new export division.

 

Polarization Split

The UAE is currently working on building a military base on Abd al-Kuri Island in “occupied” Socotra, in addition to building another military base and a runway for fighter jets on the Yemeni island of Mayun (Perim island).

According to Intelligence Online, the UAE signed with “mercenaries” a security agreement under the pretext of the so-called “fight against terrorism,” which helped to consolidate the positions of the “occupying” Emirati forces in the Red Sea.

As part of the UAE’s keenness to control the “occupation” of strategic sites on the Red Sea, Abu Dhabi is accelerating its agenda in Yemen and does not hesitate to act on its own without consulting Riyadh.

This isn’t the first open dispute between Saudi Arabia and UAE. In 2021, relations between the two countries were strained by different positions on Yemen, oil production, and broader geopolitical calculations after a new administration in Washington.

Saudi Arabia halted all flights with the UAE late, just days after the two countries fell out over oil production.

While the Saudi Press Agency said the suspension of flights from the UAE was due to “the ongoing outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of a new mutant strain of the virus,” analysts told The Independent that other factors played their part.

Saudi Arabia changed its rules on imports from other Gulf states to exclude goods made in free zones or where any Israeli product was used “in a direct challenge to the UAE’s status as a regional trade hub,” the newspaper said.

Cinzia Bianco, a researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Independent that tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been increasing for a long time, adding that the two countries are “reassessing the balance of power in their bilateral relationship in a way that applies to the regional and international arena.”

Gulf analysts say one of the main sources of the conflict is that the UAE sees itself as “a competitor to Saudi Arabia and not as a junior partner.”

Regarding OPEC and oil production, Bianco said: “The UAE feels that it has been treated unfairly.”