Why Prepare and Prevent Is the Most Efficient Path to Realizing the UAE NCSP

In today’s threat landscape, a reactive cybersecurity stance is no longer sufficient – especially for critical sectors like oil & gas, telecommunications, banking, and healthcare. The United Arab Emirates’ National Cyber Security Strategy (NCSP) emphasizes a proactive approach, encapsulated in its “Prepare and Prevent” domain. This approach stresses the importance of acting before incidents occur: raising baseline defenses, ensuring compliance with standards, and building resilience. The logic is simple yet powerful – investing in preparation and prevention now is far more effective and cost-efficient than dealing with breaches later. In this article, we explore how aligning with the NCSP’s Prepare and Prevent strategy can protect vital industries and why it’s the smartest path forward for UAE organizations.

The UAE’s National Cyber Security Strategy, designed around five core areas, includes a dedicated Prepare and Prevent domain. This domain’s objectives are clear: elevate the minimum protection level of cyber assets and ensure compliance with UAE cyber security standards. In essence, the government is urging organizations to strengthen their systems now to reduce risks, and to adhere to unified national cyber standards so that defenses are consistently robust across the board. By focusing on preparation and prevention, the NCSP aims to reduce the likelihood and impact of cyber incidents country-wide. It’s a strategic shift from the old “wait-and-respond” mindset to one where potential threats are anticipated and neutralized in advance.

This vision is especially pertinent to the UAE’s critical sectors. The NCSP specifically highlights the need to protect key industries – including energy (oil & gas), ICT (telecom), finance, and health services – among others . These sectors form the backbone of the economy and society, and a cyber attack on one of them could have national implications. Aligning with the NCSP means companies in these fields must take proactive steps to secure their infrastructure and data as a matter of national interest.

“Elevating the minimum protection level of cyber assets” essentially means raising the cybersecurity baseline across all organizations. Practically, this involves ensuring that fundamental security controls (firewalls, encryption, access management, etc.) are in place and effective for all systems, not just the most sensitive ones. When every company maintains a high baseline of security, attackers struggle to find easy gaps to exploit. For critical industries in the UAE, adopting this principle is crucial – the goal is to make sure every oil pipeline control system, every banking database, every hospital network has strong defenses by default, not as an afterthought.

Hand-in-hand with stronger baseline security comes compliance with UAE cyber security standards. The NCSP calls for ensuring compliance with national standards and verifying their effectiveness . UAE regulators have established unified Information Assurance (IA) standards to serve as a minimum benchmark for security across government and industries . Compliance isn’t just a bureaucratic box-ticking exercise – it raises the quality of security measures to a nationally accepted level. By adhering to frameworks like the UAE National Information Assurance Standards (and sector-specific regulations), organizations contribute to a more secure national ecosystem. Equally important is testing and audit: it’s not enough to declare compliance; companies must regularly audit their controls and perform assessments to ensure those controls actually work (this echoes the NCSP’s mandate to “verify effectiveness”). In short, complying with standards – and continuously validating that compliance through reviews, security audits, and penetration tests – helps maintain the robust baseline that “Prepare and Prevent” envisions.

At StormWall, we fully support the NCSP’s forward-thinking “Prepare and Prevent” approach. Our global experience shows that proactive protection – particularly for critical sectors – significantly reduces the impact of DDoS attacks and ensures uninterrupted digital operations. The UAE’s emphasis on readiness and baseline protection is not just a regulatory mandate – it’s a smart operational strategy.

We’ve observed that many organizations still underestimate the scale and sophistication of today’s DDoS threats. By the time a reactive defense is triggered, the damage may already be done – whether it’s service disruption, reputational harm, or financial loss. That’s why we work with partners like Evoitsec to deliver preemptive, reliable protection tailored to the unique risk profiles of sectors like finance, telecom, healthcare, and beyond.

It’s not about whether a cyber incident will happen – it’s about how prepared you are when it does. The UAE’s NCSP sends a clear signal: being secure by design and resilient by practice is no longer optional. It’s a national priority.

Embracing a prepare-and-prevent philosophy isn’t just good for security – it’s good for business. Proactive investment in cybersecurity is far cheaper than the cost of a major breach or prolonged downtime. Consider recent findings: the average cost of a data breach in the Middle East rose to $8.75 million in 2024, according to IBM’s annual study . This is among the highest in the world, second only to the United States, and reflects the significant financial and reputational damage organizations suffer when attacks succeed. Those costs include not only technical recovery, but also business disruption and lost customers; in fact, lost business and post-breach response accounted for a large portion of breach costs in recent years . For critical infrastructure operators, the stakes are even higher – an oil & gas company or a telecom provider hit by a cyber incident could face regulatory fines, environmental damage, or threats to public safety, compounding the losses.

On the other hand, the price of prevention is relatively modest when weighed against these potential losses. Funding regular security assessments, staff training, system upgrades, and compliance efforts now can avert catastrophic incidents that might cripple operations later. It’s the classic case of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” By plugging vulnerabilities and shoring up defenses in advance (the essence of “Prepare and Prevent”), organizations avoid the massive cleanup costs and business impact of breaches. The NCSP recognizes this efficiency – realizing its goals depends on organizations reducing risk proactively, so that fewer incidents occur and any that do cause minimal damage. In summary, investing in preparedness not only aligns with national strategy but also delivers a strong ROI by safeguarding continuity and trust.

Achieving a state of readiness and prevention also means instilling robust internal security processes – this is where standards like ISO/IEC 27001 come into play. ISO 27001 is an internationally recognized framework for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), and it complements the UAE’s cyber strategy by promoting continuous risk management and organizational resilience. In fact, ISO 27001 is often regarded as “the most widely-recognised and implemented framework for organisational resilience,” helping businesses protect critical assets in a systematic, cost-effective way . By adopting ISO 27001, companies ensure that security isn’t a one-time project, but an ongoing cycle of identifying risks, implementing controls, monitoring effectiveness, and improving over time.

For executives in sectors like banking or healthcare, pursuing ISO 27001 certification sends a powerful message: that your organization adheres to global best practices and is committed to protecting stakeholder data. It also reinforces compliance with local UAE standards – there is significant overlap between ISO 27001 controls and national regulatory requirements. Expertise in ISO 27001, therefore, is a valuable asset on the journey to resilience. It helps build a security culture where preventive measures and preparedness are ingrained in daily operations, from top management to IT teams. In alignment with the NCSP’s Prepare and Prevent ethos, ISO 27001 provides the blueprint for organizations to stay ahead of threats rather than chase after them.

As mentioned above, Evoitsec, based in Dubai and deeply aligned with the NCSP’s principles, offers a suite of proactive cybersecurity services designed to help organizations prepare and prevent effectively.

One of the most common and disruptive threats across critical industries in the UAE is the risk of downtime caused by DDoS attacks. To effectively support the NCSP’s “Prepare and Prevent” vision, organizations should take several proactive steps to safeguard their infrastructure:

1. Protect all layers: Ensure your DDoS protection covers not only websites (L7), but also networks (L3–L4) and backend services (TCP/UDP), which are often targeted in sophisticated attacks.

2. Ensure fast mitigation readiness: Whether using an always-on or on-demand setup, protection must be capable of activating within seconds. Critical systems require architectures that support immediate rerouting and filtering of malicious traffic to minimize downtime.

3. Leverage regional infrastructure to support performance and compliance: Filtering nodes located close to your users (e.g., in the Middle East) help maintain low latency during mitigation. In many cases, regional traffic handling is also essential for meeting local regulatory and data residency requirements — a growing priority for organizations aligned with the NCSP.

4. Enable continuous monitoring and smart adaptation: Choose solutions that not only detect anomalies in real time but also adapt filtering rules automatically based on evolving attack patterns. This dynamic approach is essential in sectors like telecom and finance, where threat landscapes change rapidly.

These measures can significantly reduce business disruption risks and support compliance with NCSP objectives. StormWall, in collaboration with Evoitsec, helps organizations implement these principles as part of a proactive, resilience-first strategy. By integrating these services into their security strategy, organizations in sectors like oil & gas, telecom, finance, and healthcare can dramatically improve their preparedness. The result is a stronger security posture that prevents incidents and meets national cybersecurity expectations.

The old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail” rings especially true in cybersecurity. The UAE’s NCSP and its Prepare and Prevent domain underscore that early preparation and robust prevention are the most efficient path to a secure digital future for the nation. By raising the baseline of protection and rigorously complying with standards, organizations not only shield themselves from today’s cyber threats but also contribute to the collective security of the UAE’s critical infrastructure . The cost benefits are clear – it is far more economical to invest in strong defenses now than to suffer multi-million-dollar losses later . Equally important, a preventive approach safeguards an organization’s reputation and trustworthiness, which are invaluable in the digital economy.

Executives and stakeholders have a pivotal role in championing this proactive mindset. By partnering with cybersecurity experts who share the Prepare and Prevent philosophy, you ensure that your organization is always one step ahead of attackers. In the long run, this means fewer security incidents, faster growth enabled by digital trust, and alignment with the UAE’s vision of a safe and thriving cyber environment. Preparing and preventing today is the key to realising the UAE’s National Cyber Security Strategy tomorrow – it’s a strategy that is efficient, effective, and smart.