SandboxAQ’S Mohammed Aboul-Magd unpacks UAE’s National Encryption Policy

Encryption rarely makes headlines, yet it quietly underpins almost every digital system that powers modern economies, from banking and aviation to healthcare and national security. Now, the UAE is pushing it out of the shadows and into the centre of national strategy with its forthcoming National Encryption Policy. It is a move that signals more than technical compliance, it points to how seriously the country is treating digital trust as core infrastructure.

To unpack why this matters, and what it means in practical terms for governments and businesses, we speak with Mohammed Aboul-Magd, VP of Product at SandboxAQ’s Cybersecurity Group, on the risks hiding in today’s cryptographic systems, the looming impact of quantum computing, and why automation may be the only way nations can realistically become quantum-safe at scale.

Encryption is usually viewed as a deeply technical field, so it’s striking to see an entire national policy dedicated to it. Why is the UAE taking this step now?

It’s rare to see encryption elevated to the level of national strategy — and that’s exactly why this move matters. But in many ways, this is exactly what a forward-looking digital economy should be doing.

The UAE understands that encryption is not a niche technical safeguard but rather the silent infrastructure that secures everything from government communications and financial transactions to aviation systems, healthcare records and critical national assets.

Every digital interaction we rely on involves encryption in some form. Yet despite this dependency, cryptography is still, in most organisations, a largely manual and neglected discipline. Companies deploy encryption algorithms, implement keys and certificates, and then, over time, lose visibility and control over them. It’s a bit like fitting every door in your home with strong locks but never checking whether those locks are still secure as technology evolves and attackers become more sophisticated.

A national policy forces a change in mindset. It recognises that secure cryptography is as fundamental to economic competitiveness and national security as reliable power or transport infrastructure. By placing encryption at the centre of strategy, the UAE is signalling that digital trust is now a matter of national resilience and that it intends to lead, rather than follow, in securing the foundations of its economy. This is the UAE treating cryptography the same way it treats aviation, energy, or finance: as critical national infrastructure.

You mentioned encryption algorithms eventually becoming insecure. Should businesses simply accept that as inevitable?

Algorithms age, and history shows that even widely trusted standards eventually become vulnerable. Encryption algorithms are essentially mathematical puzzles. As computing power advances, and as cryptanalysis improves, puzzles that were once impossible to solve can, over time, be cracked. We’ve seen this with early versions of RSA, with MD5. When these algorithms failed, the fallout for organisations was severe, potentially resulting in data exposures, compliance failures and, in some cases, complete system overhauls.

The real challenge today is that many organisations don’t know where outdated algorithms are still hiding. Without an automated inventory of their cryptography, they can’t say whether parts of their systems are secured by algorithms that have already been compromised. That blind spot is where real risk lives.

This is why the UAE’s forthcoming National Encryption Policy will likely include several critical measures. First, automated cryptographic inventory will become mandatory. Manual spreadsheets will no longer be acceptable. Entities will need real-time visibility of every key, certificate and algorithm across their environments. You cannot modernise what you cannot see.

Second, we should expect the National Encryption Policy to set phased and risk-based timelines for retiring vulnerable algorithms. Some sectors, especially those with legacy industrial systems, may need more time. What matters is that organisations follow a clear roadmap, beginning with systems that protect long-lived or mission-critical data.

And third, the policy will also mandate crypto-agility, meaning systems must be able to rotate keys or upgrade algorithms without rewriting applications or taking services offline. Crypto-agility prevents the accumulation of legacy cryptographic risk: outdated keys, certificates and algorithms that quietly accumulate risk over time.

Quantum computing always comes up in conversations about encryption. How real is this threat, and what could it mean for a country like the UAE?

Quantum computing is no longer a distant theoretical concern. Recent progress, such as IBM’s “Loon” chip, shows a credible engineering pathway to fault-tolerant quantum machines before the end of the decade. That shifts quantum risk from abstract to strategic planning territory.

I wouldn’t say Q-Day has a fixed date, but we now have realistic trajectories that place it well within the investment and technology cycles that governments care about. And the risk isn’t only future: harvest-now, decrypt-later attacks are already happening. Adversaries are collecting encrypted data today to decrypt the moment quantum capabilities arrive.

That’s why the UAE’s timing is so important. By preparing early, the country turns a challenge into an opportunity. A nation that can demonstrate it is quantum-safe becomes a far more attractive destination for global business, investment and innovation. The UAE clearly sees that future and is positioning itself ahead of the curve.

The global shortage of advanced cybersecurity talent is well known. With post-quantum cryptography now on the agenda, how can the UAE build the skills required for national readiness?

This is one of the most important aspects of the national strategy, because no country can hire its way out of this challenge. There simply aren’t enough cryptographers in the global workforce. The UAE will likely find the answer in combining targeted upskilling with intelligent automation.

Platforms like SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard are designed to democratise complex security practices. They allow generalist IT and security teams to manage cryptographic upgrades, automation and PQC transitions without needing a PhD in mathematics. In parallel, capabilities such as AskAI and integrated security knowledge graphs help turn operators into specialists on the fly, supporting continuous learning within organisations.

This “human plus automation” model is how nations will scale quantum-safe capability. Not by expanding headcount, but by expanding capability. 

Finally, what role should the private sector play in supporting the UAE’s National Encryption Policy?

The private sector will be instrumental. The government sets the standards, but companies provide the infrastructure that allows those standards to be implemented at scale. The UAE is likely to align its policy with global frameworks such as NIST’s PQC algorithms, and the private sector’s role will be to ensure these standards can be adopted seamlessly across legacy systems.

This means solving what we often call the “last-mile integration problem” by making sure that banks, telcos, government entities and critical-infrastructure operators can upgrade cryptography without operational disruption. Private-sector platforms will provide the automation required to rotate keys, replace algorithms and manage cryptographic policy at enterprise level.

By working hand in hand, government and industry can accelerate the UAE’s transformation into a quantum-safe economy and position the country as a global leader in digital trust.