THE United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel announced the ‘Crystal Ball’ Project this week, a digital platform for detecting and warding off hackers via collaboration and knowledge sharing.
According to Emirati Cybersecurity Chief Mohamed al Kuwaiti, the platform will enable partner countries to ‘easily and seamlessly share information’, and will be strengthened by the combination of their joint abilities, processing power, and a high volume of data.
Al Kuwaiti said the UAE’s connection with Israeli tech companies helped a lot in the country’s transition to a digital economy especially after both countries normalized diplomatic relations in September 2020 through the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by former United States President Donald Trump.
There are also hopes the ‘Crystal Ball’ Project will be a model for other governments and organizations.
The project is supported by Microsoft, Israel’s Rafael advanced defense systems, and Abu Dhabi’s CPX.
An unspecified number of countries will also participate.
In December, Emirati officials met with counterparts from Israel, Bahrain, and Morocco to discuss a ‘cyber iron dome’ cyber-defense system after the Jewish State accused Iran of launching cyber-attacks.
