The Middle East's fast-paced tech revolution on a massive scale has also triggered an evolution in tactics employed by hackers to trick netizens into revealing their data. These phishing attacks aimed at bleeding an individual's bank account dry by obtaining info via dubious phone calls or messages, have prompted both users as well as authorities to become more cautious about such elements posing as bankers.

But this hasn't stopped cyber crooks, who have now turned towards more sophisticated and carefully crafted emails, that are targeting individuals as well as firms in the Emirates. To help UAE-based digital ventures withstand this cyber pandemic in the region, a cybersecurity major has stepped in with AI to spot suspicious language in messages.

The global firm Mimecast has introduced a solution which uses machine learning to collect and analyse data, for understanding the relationship of clients with those approaching them via mail. It then creates a CyberGraph which records patterns of these links, and watches out for any unusual communication to flag suspicious actors.

Another feature of CyberGraph is that it can identify and block communication that contains links aimed at embedding trackers. These trackers act as a peephole for hackers to extract information that may be used for more sophisticated cyber attacks.

As for issuing alerts, the system has banners in different colours to indicate the varying risk of a cyber heist, attached to a suspicious email. It determines the nature of a threat by crowd-sourcing information online, to stay up to speed with changing strategies used by cybercrooks.

Thanks to the warning about potential threats, businesses can take preemptive action using insights from the smart cybersecurity mechanism. Such a solution is the need of the hour since the threat of cyber attacks through emails has gone up by 64%, and employees working remotely are three times more likely to open dubious messages.

As local firms walk a tight rope to upgrade digital presence and ensure cyber-security, AI is also being used in fintech to access messages for spotting potential insider trading scams.