“You must report immediately in case of any security incident,” read a text message sent to phones in the United Arab Emirates from “MOI” during the Iran war. But the country’s Ministry of Interior never sent such an alert. It later cautioned residents against acting on the “fake” message.
In a country that bore the brunt of Iranian attacks as Tehran retaliated against Israel and the United States, authorities say the nation also faced barrages of a more insidious nature.
The UAE had already noticed a sharp spike in cyberattacks weeks before the war, Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, the head of cybersecurity for the UAE Government, told state media last month. In the early days of the war, he said,…