The United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s top IT official fears virtual private networks (VPNs) are being misused in the country.
“We don’t have a problem with people using VPNs, but using them for bad things is the problem,” Muhammad Al Kuwaiti, head of cybersecurity at the UAE government, recently said local journalists.
According to the report, UAE residents increased VPN app downloads by 1.83 million in 2023, reaching a total of 6.1 million. Atlas VPN Global VPN Adoption Index.
This pushed the UAE’s VPN adoption rate to 61.7% last year, the second highest in the world after Qatar’s 69.87%.
Strict regulations and censorship
VPN usage in the UAE is high because the country has established strict regulations on Internet content, including censorship of designated websites and online services, says Ezzeldin Hussein, regional director, sales engineering, Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META), SentinelOne.
“VPNs allow users to bypass these restrictions and access content that may be blocked or unavailable in the country, such as VoIP services,” explains Hussein.
He added that the UAE is a global trade hub, so visiting business travelers often use VPNs to access corporate networks, communicate securely abroad and overcome geo-restrictions on services and content.
Individuals in the UAE are also turning to VPNs to encrypt their Internet traffic and protect their personal information from surveillance, hacking and data breaches, he notes.
VPN for WhatsApp, FaceTime access
Nord Security says VPN usage is growing in the UAE and the wider Gulf as residents use it to make audio-video calls via apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, FaceTime and dating apps.
however, the Government Telecommunications and Digital Regulatory Authority (TDRA) guidelines clearly prohibit this the use of VPNs for illegal purposes, including hiding an IP address to gain access to banned communication sites, such as WhatsApp, which is considered a rival to the government’s incumbent VoIP services.
Pursuant to the legislative decree a fight false rumors (or fake news) and cyber crimesUAE residents who break the law and abuse VPNs could face imprisonment and fines of between Dh500,000 and Dh2 million.
Gopan Sivasankaran, Secureworks’ general manager for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, says the UAE is home to a large percentage of expatriate workers who may be tempted to use VPNs to access media from their home country or call friends and international family members.
Legal risks aside, Sivasankaran warns against consumer complacency regarding VPN-specific cybersecurity risks.
“In the same way that the cloud is sometimes dismissed as ‘someone else’s computer,’ third-party VPN services are ‘someone else’s network.’ They will protect your local traffic on a hotel or public WiFi network, but the protection ends on the VPN service provider’s server,” he explains. Rogue providers could potentially monetize, monitor or interfere with VPN traffic, she adds.
“The customer trusts that no harm will be done with their communications.”
Cybercrime investigative challenges
From a national cybersecurity perspective, the widespread use of VPNs poses challenges to law enforcement and intelligence agencies tasked with monitoring cybercrime and national security threats, SentinelOne’s Hussein warns.
“The anonymity offered by VPNs can make it difficult to trace the source of malicious activity or identify individuals involved in cyberattacks or other illicit activities conducted online,” he says.
“Ultimately, governments will face political and regulatory challenges in balancing the need to protect cybersecurity with respecting individual privacy rights and freedoms,” adds Hussein. “It is important to educate the general public about responsible VPN use and the potential risks of VPN misuse.”