The cybersecurity landscape is undergoing rapid transformation, shaped by hybrid work, AI-driven threats, growing digital sprawl, and a widening skills gap. The 2025 edition of the Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index offers a comprehensive view into how organisations are preparing for this volatile environment. Based on responses from 8,000 security leaders across 30 global markets, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the report evaluates readiness across five essential pillars: Identity Intelligence, Machine Trustworthiness, Network Resilience, Cloud Reinforcement, and AI Fortification.
In this two-part analysis, we decode the UAE-specific findings and their implications for enterprise security leaders. While there is visible movement in certain areas, the broader picture points to underinvestment in foundational capabilities, limited maturity in key domains, and rising risks associated with AI adoption.
A Static Picture in a Dynamic Threat Landscape
Despite rising awareness and budget allocations, UAE organisations have made only incremental progress in cybersecurity maturity.
- Only 5 percent of UAE companies are in the Mature category, up slightly from 4 percent in 2024.
- A significant 61 percent remain at the Formative level, and 9 percent are still classified as Beginners.
- The share of companies in the Progressive stage holds steady at 26 percent.
In a region known for its ambitious digital agendas and smart city initiatives, this limited advancement raises critical questions about cybersecurity prioritisation and execution.
AI as a Risk and an Enabler
AI is fast becoming both a strategic asset and a security challenge. While it is enhancing capabilities across detection, response, and recovery, it is also amplifying the complexity of the threat landscape.
Globally, 86 percent of security leaders reported at least one AI-related incident over the past year. Common incidents include:
- Model theft or unauthorised access (43 percent)
- AI-enhanced social engineering (42 percent)
- Data poisoning attempts (38 percent)
- Prompt injection attacks (35 percent)
In the UAE, 60 percent of security teams lack visibility into employee prompts submitted to GenAI tools. An equal number are unsure about identifying unauthorised or shadow AI tools operating in their environments. Moreover, 22 percent of organisations allow unrestricted access to public AI platforms, significantly increasing the risk of data leakage.
These insights suggest that while AI offers operational gains, most companies are still playing catch-up on responsible usage, governance, and security controls.
Identity Intelligence
Securing digital identities remains a core concern, especially as threat actors use AI to bypass traditional authentication methods. Identity Intelligence is one area where UAE firms have shown measurable, though modest, progress.
- 6 percent of companies have reached the Mature stage, compared to 5 percent in 2024.
- Adoption of AI within identity security is strong, with 49 percent reporting significant AI integration.
- The two most widely implemented tools are identity behaviour analytics (55 percent) and cross-context identity analytics (53 percent).
- 30 percent of UAE respondents ranked identity security as their top cybersecurity challenge, second only to network defence.
The shift from Beginner to Formative status for many organisations is encouraging. However, limited maturity suggests that execution barriers, such as integration complexity and skills shortages, are delaying full implementation.
Machine Trustworthiness
With employees connecting from unmanaged devices and IoT expanding across sectors, machine-level security is vital. The UAE shows the highest improvement here among all five pillars.
- 11 percent of organisations are now in the Mature category, a marked increase from 5 percent last year.
- 52 percent of adopters are significantly using AI to secure machines and endpoints.
- BIOS-level integrity checks are the most adopted defence (58 percent), followed by built-in protections like firewall and IPS (57 percent), and machine behaviour anomaly detection (51 percent).
The rise in maturity signals a serious approach to device security, but challenges remain. Many companies are stuck in the Formative and Progressive stages, highlighting the need for broader coverage, standardised policies, and investment in device visibility.
Network Resilience
Cybersecurity readiness around network security is regressing. As networks evolve to handle hybrid work, edge computing, and sensitive data across cloud and on-premise environments, traditional security models are no longer sufficient.
- Only 8 percent of UAE organisations are considered Mature in network resilience, down from 9 percent in 2024.
- A sharp decline in Progressive organisations (from 22 percent to 13 percent) and an increase in Formative companies (from 46 percent to 50 percent) suggest backsliding.
- 33 percent of respondents identified Network Resilience as their most difficult area to secure, more than any other pillar.
- 52 percent of companies using AI for network defence report significant integration, but full adoption of advanced practices like segmentation remains limited.
While more than half of organisations plan to implement network segmentation within the next year, funding and resource constraints are slowing execution. In a region undergoing rapid digital expansion, this lack of resilience is a critical vulnerability.
Cloud Reinforcement
As organisations in the UAE continue shifting workloads and data to the cloud, their cloud security maturity remains surprisingly low. While cloud adoption has become the default choice for scalability and agility, the corresponding reinforcement of cloud environments is still lagging behind.
- Only 5 percent of UAE companies are in the Mature category, up modestly from 3 percent in 2024.
- A combined 81 percent of organisations remain in the Formative or Beginner stages.
- 53 percent of adopters report significant use of AI in their cloud security solutions.
This gap between aggressive cloud adoption and limited readiness leaves businesses highly exposed. Despite AI enhancements, the uptake of essential cloud security practices remains inconsistent. Cisco warns that unless organisations take more decisive action, attackers will continue to exploit these vulnerabilities, especially through automation, misconfiguration exploits, and gaps in policy enforcement.
AI Fortification
AI is becoming an indispensable part of cybersecurity operations, but most companies in the UAE have not yet reached the comfort level required to fully automate defences. While the technology is used widely across functions, trust in its effectiveness and readiness for end-to-end deployment remains low.
- The share of Mature companies in AI Fortification is flat at 7 percent.
- 100 percent of respondents said they were comfortable with some level of automation.
- However, only 45 percent are comfortable with full automation.
- AI usage by function in the UAE:
- Threat intelligence: 96 percent
- Threat detection: 93 percent
- Threat response: 79 percent
- Incident recovery: 77 percent
- Only 28 percent of companies have fully automated threat detection.
The hesitation appears rooted in the novelty of AI systems, concerns over reliability, and the need for human oversight in security decision-making. Comfort levels are even lower for AI use in infrastructure upgrades (18 percent), policy deployment (15 percent), and red teaming (14 percent). These figures confirm that while AI is gaining ground, it still has more to prove before companies are willing to trust it for mission-critical decisions.
Hybrid Work Expands the Attack Surface
The ongoing trend of hybrid work continues to strain security perimeters. Employees now access corporate networks through a mix of personal and enterprise devices, often using public or unmanaged networks.
- 84 percent of UAE employees access company systems from unmanaged devices.
- 31 percent of respondents reported that employees log in to an average of six different networks each week.
This high level of mobility increases exposure to lateral movement, unauthorised access, and data exfiltration risks. Security strategies must now account for dynamic access patterns, distributed endpoints, and environments where visibility and control are inherently limited.
Security Stack Complexity and Talent Shortage
Too many tools and too few skilled professionals remain major obstacles to improving cybersecurity readiness. UAE organisations face a dual challenge: integrating fragmented point solutions while also trying to fill critical talent gaps.
- 70 percent of companies in the UAE operate more than 10 point solutions.
- 26 percent admit to running over 30 distinct security tools.
- 77 percent say that tool complexity slows detection, response, and recovery.
- 86 percent cite a shortage of cybersecurity talent as a challenge.
- 39 percent call it a significant barrier.
- 53 percent report having more than 10 cybersecurity roles open.
- 88 percent say these roles account for over 10 percent of their team’s headcount.
The inability to unify tools and processes is placing additional pressure on already stretched security teams. This fragmentation not only affects operational efficiency but also complicates incident response workflows.
Budget Allocations and Investment Priorities
While the majority of UAE organisations are increasing their cybersecurity budgets, the proportion of overall IT spend allocated to cybersecurity is declining. This reflects a growing mismatch between infrastructure expansion and the funding necessary to protect it.
- 98 percent of UAE companies plan to increase cybersecurity spending in 2025.
- 31 percent expect increases above 30 percent.
- However, only 45 percent allocate more than 10 percent of IT budgets to cybersecurity, down from 53 percent in 2024.
- Key areas of planned investment:
- Upgrading current solutions: 63 percent
- AI-driven technologies such as GenAI: 58 percent
- New solutions: 55 percent
- Employee training and talent acquisition: 44 percent
- Visibility and analytics: 43 percent
- Automation capabilities: 34 percent
- Outsourcing to managed service providers: 16 percent
Although budget increases reflect growing awareness, the reduction in proportional spending suggests that cybersecurity may not be keeping pace with digital growth. Without aligning investment levels to the scale of digital risk, organisations will continue to face avoidable exposure.
Strategic Recommendations for UAE Enterprises
Cisco’s report concludes with a call to action across all five pillars. UAE organisations should:
- Strengthen Identity Intelligence through AI-powered Zero Trust architectures and passwordless or multi-factor authentication.
- Accelerate Machine Trustworthiness by verifying all users and devices before granting access.
- Improve Network Resilience by prioritising full-scale implementation of segmentation and anomaly detection.
- Unify Cloud Reinforcement strategies with consistent policy enforcement across environments.
- Advance AI Fortification by building trust in automation, protecting models, and securing usage.
It is essential for enterprises to move beyond partial deployments and disjointed efforts. A unified strategy, supported by AI, talent, and actionable insights, is required to close readiness gaps and respond effectively to evolving threats.
The 2025 Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index makes one message clear: UAE companies cannot afford to delay their security transformation. While there is encouraging progress in some areas, critical gaps remain in cloud protection, network defence, and AI security. With the threat landscape growing more sophisticated and AI-enabled attacks becoming the norm, UAE enterprises must act decisively.
Organisations that invest in strategic, AI-augmented, and integrated cybersecurity frameworks will be best positioned to defend their digital assets and maintain trust in an increasingly volatile environment.
