By Joseph George
Schools across the region are confronting a complex and fast-evolving cybersecurity threat landscape that exploit rapid digital adoption and interconnected platforms amidst a serious lack of customised cybersecurity solutions
Dubai, May 8, 2026: Schools in the GCC are increasingly emerging as prime targets for cyber attacks due to their advanced technology adoption. The region’s K-12 establishments face a distinct combination of cyber, physical and geopolitical risks, creating a threat environment that differs significantly from many global markets, where challenges are often more internally or infrastructure-driven.
Schools are cyber-attack targets because they hold sensitive data on children, parents, staff and financial systems. The most common threats are phishing attacks targeting staff email, credential theft, ransomware attempts against administrative systems and attacks that exploit third-party education platforms used for learning management, payments, or parent communication.
Kausar Mukeri, Vice President of Information Security and Data Privacy at GEMS Education says these threats are very much active at the school level and broadly consistent with global trends. “Schools in this region operate in highly digitised learning environments where cloud platforms, mobile applications and parent portals are deeply integrated into daily operations,” he says, adding that it is this interconnected ecosystem which attackers increasingly target.
