Cyber resilience is increasingly linked to national and economic security, and cybersecurity depends on collective defence, Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of the UAE Cybersecurity Council, said at a key conference at the GISEC Global 2026.
âCybersecurity culture is the responsibility of everybody. Our first line of defence is still the community,â he said speaking on During âCybersecurity Is Defining the New Order'.
Day one of GISEC Global 2026 delivered a highâimpact programme that brought emerging AIâenabled threats, national cyber resilience and critical infrastructure protection into sharp focus, as international experts examined the technologies and geopolitical forces reshaping the cybersecurity landscape.
In his keynote on âThe Deepfake Decade: What Hollywood Learned Firstâ, Emmy-nominated actor Michael Kelly highlighted how AI-generated deepfakes are challenging identity, consent and trust, with a personâs voice and likeness becoming part of their digital identity. Drawing on Hollywoodâs experience, he stressed the importance of identity verification, content authentication and meaningful control over the use of AI-generated media. âYour voice and your likeness are your identity. No one should be able to use them without your knowledge and consent,â he said.
Reflecting these themes on the exhibition floor, exhibitors also highlighted the growing importance of cyber resilience as organisations adapt to increasingly AI-driven threats.
Ayman Hammoudeh, Senior Director, Sales Engineering, Cohesity, stated: "AI has transformed how organisations operate, innovate, and compete. It has also introduced an entirely new class of risk. The same AI agents that drive productivity, automate decisions, and power critical business processes can unintentionally disrupt operations, compromise trusted data, and amplify errors at scale. Protecting AI is no longer just about securing models. It requires safeguarding the agents, memory, data, and systems that underpin them. Protect and recover your AI systems, agents, and data, and build resilience that holds from the ground up."
Cyber resilience and infrastructure protection
Day one also examined the operational realities of protecting critical sectors. Sessions including âOperational Resilience in Oil & Gasâ and âCyber Resilience in Critical Infrastructureâ explored how compromised OT environments, sensor inputs and digital twins can move cyber risk beyond IT systems and create physical, safety and operational consequences.
Khaled Al-Taneji, Head of Cybersecurity at ENOC Group, argued that organisations should assess cyber risk through its potential business, operational, cyber-physical and safety consequences rather than treating it simply as an IT-versus-OT challenge. He also highlighted the importance of non-cyber safeguards and the ability to switch to manual or degraded operations to maintain essential services during an incident.
National security, digital sovereignty
The convergence of cybersecurity, national security and digital sovereignty continued across the CyberSecurity Congress, hosted by the UAE Cybersecurity Council, and the Government Stage, hosted by DESC, where discussions focused on international cooperation, sovereign cyber capabilities and securing rapidly evolving digital economies.
In âBuilding the World's Safest City in an Age of AI-Powered Threatsâ, Amer Sharaf, CEO of Cyber Security Systems and Services Sector at Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), examined Dubai's approach to resilience as AI accelerates both cyberattacks and cyber defence. He highlighted AI-powered defence, trusted digital identity, resilience by design, the âhuman firewallâ and public trust, stressing: âSafety is not only in the physical world, but also in the digital world. Make cybersecurity a shared responsibility.â
HandsâOn Defence: Technical labs
Beyond the conference programme, GISEC translated the day's discussions into practical experiences through live ethical-hacking and OSINT demonstrations on the Dark Stage, alongside interactive challenges including the Dubai Cyber Challenge and GISEC Decode. The School of Cyber Defense also continued its programme of practical cybersecurity learning across the event.Live drills engaged attendees with interactive cyber challenges and technical experiences across the exhibition, including the Dubai Cyber Challenge and GISEC Decode, while longer-running initiatives such as the Global Quantum Drill and the School of Cyber Defense continue throughout the event programme.
Global Leadership Roundtable
At the invitation-only Global Leadership Roundtable, âThe AI Sovereignty Imperative: Defending the US$28 Trillion Digital Economy,â Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti joined Subra Kumaraswamy, SVP & Chief Information Security Officer, Visa, USA; Christophe Blassiau, Senior Vice President, Global CISO & CPSO, Schneider Electric, France; Alex Attumalil, Global Chief Information Security Officer, Under Armour, USA; and Solomon Gilbert, Cybersecurity Researcher and Former Hacker, to examine how governments and enterprises can strengthen cyber resilience, protect digital sovereignty and secure the technologies underpinning the global digital economy.
GISEC Global 2026 continues at Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo City Dubai, until September 18, with the next two days examining AI security, critical infrastructure, cloud security, cyber warfare, digital forensics and emerging technologies. - TradeArabia News Service
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