UAE: Biometric data theft, cyberterrorism are biggest future threats, says top Dubai Police official

Cyberterrorism, biometric data and poisoning of data, and crimes in the metaverse are the biggest digital threats that human beings are projected to face in the future, a senior Dubai official said on Thursday.

Major Tarek Belhoul, head of the virtual assets crime section at Dubai Police, said, “We see a huge projection of crime in the metaverse and digital space as our economies are transforming into digital economies in the coming years. Data poisoning is quite important.

"A lot of people talk about ChatGPT, which stands on existing data available on the internet. We all know that data on the internet is not 100 per cent solid. So the big question is how will AI be able to identify what is good and bad data. If state actors and criminals want to operate in that space, just spoil the data as much as they can. We see that is used a lot in today’s propaganda warfare from a tool aspect."

Elaborating on the use of technologies to commit crime, he said that biometric data (fingerprints, iris scans, voice, and facial recognition) is being leveraged to impersonate victims and gain unauthorised access; malware and ransomware have been repeatedly leveraged to commit crimes and extort money; and Vulnerabilities in IoT devices are being exploited by criminals.

He also noted that cyberterrorism is projected to be the biggest challenge as the role of technology evolves.

Speaking at the National Summit on Financial Crime Compliance on the topic of “The Future of Crime,” he said with the introduction of every new technology, the first adopters are always criminals. However, he stressed the need to invest in boosting human capacity to deal with these new-age cybercrime challenges.

“It is fantastic that we invested a lot of money in infrastructure or institutions. But that only works if we invest in our people and legislations of laws,” he said, adding that the UAE has been leading from the front in the region, becoming the first Arab country to have a dedicated section that deals with virtual assets crime.

Major Tarek Belhoul advised parents in the UAE to spend an hour a day with their children to learn about their online activities and the online friends with whom they play games.

“I cannot emphasise more than ever before that those who have kids under the age of 10 years should spend an hour with them and understand what they are doing with their phones. Don’t take away their phones, but having a conversation with them is very important,” he added.

“What kids do online, what we assume is innocent and playing around with friends, but the reality of it can be much more different,” Belhoul said while speaking at the National Summit on Financial Crime Compliance on the topic of “The Future of Crime.”

He added that Dubai Police also created a dedicated section only dealing with specific digital crimes involving children because of the number of things happening in the gaming space.

The two-day National Summit on Financial Crime Compliance began in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Top officials of the Central Bank of the UAE, Ministry of Economy, the US, Europe, and GCC discussed challenges related to financial and cybercrimes that the world faces today.