Expert Warns: Cyberattacks Could Escalate Hormuz Strait Crisis and Threaten Water Security
Dr. Daoud Hassan Kazem, an expertin environmental management and sustainable development, has issued stark warnings about the growing role of cyberattacks in the escalating tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, revealing that hackers possess the capability to infiltrate critical infrastructure through sophisticated methods that are nearly impossible to detect or trace.
Dr. Kazem’s warnings are strongly backed by the latest figures. As of February 2026, UAE authorities were intercepting between 90,000 and 200,000 cyberattacks per day, with more than 70% attributed to state-sponsored threat actors.
The situation has since deteriorated sharply: the number of daily attacks tripled to 600,000 as regional tensions intensified in 2026.
Dr. Kazem explained that hackers exploit vulnerabilities in the algorithms of target systems, enabling them to manipulate data according to specific strategic objectives. He stressed that the greatest danger lies in the near-impossibility of pinpointing the attack’s origin, as perpetrators can operate from anywhere in the world.
This is reflected in global trends: hacktivism-related DDoS attacks surged over 70% in 2024, with advanced persistent threat actors primarily targeting government agencies, manufacturing firms, and the energy industry.
On the specific threat to water and maritime infrastructure, Dr. Kazem identified pipeline sensors — which relay real-time operational data to desalination plant control rooms — as a critical and underprotected vulnerability. “When hackers manipulate the data transmitted by these sensors, operators receive false readings and make potentially catastrophic decisions,” he said. This concern is well-founded: security firm Dragos estimated that 80 ransomware groups were active across the Middle East and North Africa in 2024, up from 50 the previous year, with many specifically targeting critical infrastructure including energy, transport, and water systems.
The financial dimension of the threat is equally alarming. IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report found that the average cost of a breach in the industrial sector reached $5.56 million — an 18% increase over 2023 and the highest cost growth rate of any industry surveyed.
Regionally, the stakes are even higher: IBM research indicates that the average cost of a cyberattack on organizations in the Middle East stands at $8.75 million, nearly double the global average.
Dr. Kazem concluded that what makes such attacks particularly insidious is the way they weaponize expertise itself — experienced operators, trusting in their knowledge of normal water quality benchmarks, may spend critical time searching for physical explanations to anomalies that exist only in falsified data,while the real breach continues undetected.
International reports have called on Middle Eastern governments to pay close attention to malicious activity targeting critical infrastructure, financial institutions, and public agencies, warning that such threats may lead to serious consequences for national security and state sovereignty.
