Cyber warfare is the new normal in the volatile Middle East with different State actors evolving different techniques

Offensive cyber capabilities have now become a necessity for Middle Eastern states given the volatile environment in order to survive in the never-ending cyber warfare. Several middle eastern countries like Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar are using cyber warfare approaches to safeguard themselves.
Past December, a story about government-led hacking in the Middle East came out. The story was about how Saudi Arabia and UAE were spying on Al Jazeera’s journalists, using Israeli spyware. The story involved cyber-infiltration and data theft in a very covert fashion though it caught attention later when one of the journalists came out with her found that her phone was hacked. Many such stories but different actors with different approaches.
For instance, Saudi Arabia and Iran have very different approaches to cyberwar. Saudi Arabia and UAE has chosen to outsource most of its cyber development, purchasing surveillance tools from private contractors in the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom to conduct specific cyber operations.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE had used legions of bots to bolster the nation’s image on social media at times of crisis and degrading their rivals’ image vice versa by leading fake campaigns. At the same time, Middle East nations have attempted to strengthen their cyberdefenses, in particular by creating a broad institutional infrastructure to handle cybersecurity.
In 2013, China helps Iran by developing a national internet, known as SHOMA, independent of the World Wide Web, a partnership expected to expand with a 25-year security deal the two states are currently negotiating. Iran’s developments in the field have contributed to its status as one of the region’s most advanced cyber powers.
Qatar is taking help from multiple foreign partners throwing an extra caution apparently as a cover for expanding its offensive cyber capabilities as well. For instance, Qatar signed a bilateral agreement with Turkey to boost its cyber capabilities. Qatar also took help from US consulting firm Global Risk Advisors (GRA) to hack emails of republican fundraiser’s Elliot Broidy.
A few months back, Qatar signed an agreement with Italy-based firm Leonardo for providing cyber training to Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) for strengthening the resilience of digital infrastructure against potential cyber-attacks and perhaps also equipping its team of cyber experts to also execute such attacks.

However, Iran completely stands out. It is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, which is proving to be counter-productive. It has strengthened its cyber skills and become a huge challenge for the countries on the opposite bloc.

More than ever, because of the looming threat of cyber warfare, countries in the region must enact cybersecurity legislation, regulations, and policies that not only protect the integrity of their telecommunications, banking, and energy infrastructure but also the digital rights of their citizens. Countries in the Middle East have hacked each other, deployed malware as a tool of war, and interfered in each other’s communications networks. Unlike conventional battlefields, cyber warfare has the potential to alter the balance of power between countries.
For instance, Stuxnet malware that targeted the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran in 2010 and the Saudi Aramco cyber incident in 2017, highlighted that hacking had reached the highest echelons of international security.

All the state incidents and practices are done by key state actors in Middle East testify that it is the most vulnerate ground for cyber targets and also one of the major markets for cyber warfare companies to generate revenue.