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the Central Bank of the UAE ( CBUAE ), and UAE Banks Federation ( UBF ), in collaboration with KPMG Lower Gulf conducted a cyberwar gaming exercise , a simulation drill designed to test the UAE banking sector ’ s cyber resilience , as well as strengthen its capability to deal with increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks .

CBUAE , UAE Banks Federation , Emirates NBD ( ENBD ), First Abu Dhabi Bank ( FAB ) and Mashreq Bank took part in the war gaming exercise .

KPMG made use of proprietary platforms to simulate a sector level cyberattack that included multiple different scenarios and attack vectors . All participating banks responded to these scenarios , testing their incident response and crisis management capabilities . Bank executives also discussed the importance of information sharing and collaboration to maintain resilience against such attacks .

Jamal Saleh , Director General , UBF stated that : “ Cyber resilience is critical for modern financial systems , as disruptions can have a far-reaching impact for banks and the economy . The pandemic highlighted the urgency and importance of cyber resilience to protect the integrity of the banking system and the UAE ’ s national security . War gaming is one of the innovative ways in which UBF is helping the banking sector to test and evaluate institutional preparedness , as well as sectorlevel crisis management capabilities .” the national level with banks and relevant stakeholders to deal with cyber threat scenarios . This initiative comes as an assessment of the sector ' s preparedness to limit and respond to any potential attacks and take necessary decisions and actions .”

Mohammed Darwish Azad , UBF Information Security Chairperson and Group CISO at Emirates NBD added that : “ The UAE banking community is facing an increase in cyber threats that are evolving at an unprecedented pace . If ever there was a time , it is now to unify and collaborate in order to combat and mitigate these threats and grow stronger together . The war gaming exercise as a community has never been more important , in order to rehearse , train , stress test our ecosystems , make quicker decisions and build ‘ Muscle Memory ’.

During the exercise , the participating banks responded to a simulated cyberattack through KPMG proprietary platforms with attack paths depicted in real time . Technical team members from different banks were challenged to respond to real life scenarios

Jamal Saleh , Director General , UBF

by detecting , containing and responding to different exploits . Management and executive management team members were challenged to collaborate , apply their respective cyber response strategies and take quick decisions at critical moments . p

Thabet Bakheet Khamis , Director of Information Security , Central Bank of the UAE , said : “ The cyberattack simulation is an important milestone for the UAE banking sector as it allows us to apply crisis management strategies and collaborate at

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