The Cyber Security Council in UAE has urged individuals and online users to strengthen the protection of their financial information, warning that financial data remains one of the primary targets for cybercriminals seeking to steal assets belonging to individuals, companies, and institutions.

In a statement reported by the Emirates News Agency (WAM), the council called on users to exercise heightened caution when handling financial data online and to ensure that such information is properly secured at all times.

Read more-Mastercard partners UAE Cyber Security Council to boost national cyber resilience

The council stressed that every step taken to safeguard personal and financial data across cyberspace significantly reduces the risk of falling victim to cyber threats, online fraud, and identity theft. These attacks may involve direct attempts to access bank accounts and financial records or indirect methods such as gaining unauthorised access to personal accounts, including email, before stealing financial information.

Weekly awareness campaign highlights growing threats

As part of its weekly awareness campaign, the Cyber Security Council underscored the importance of constant vigilance to prevent fraudulent attacks targeting financial and banking data. It noted that cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting technological advancements to deceive users.

The council warned that fraudsters now use sophisticated methods to impersonate the logos and identities of banks and trusted financial institutions, often through fake advertisements or misleading messages designed to lure users into sharing sensitive information.

Individuals were advised to verify messages received through email, text, or social media and to avoid engaging with untrusted entities outside official banking channels. The council emphasised that secure payment methods should always be used and cautioned against storing financial information on electronic devices such as mobile phones or personal computers.

Behaviour changes needed to reduce financial risk

The council also stressed the need for users to change behaviours related to the use of financial data online. Recommended measures include regularly monitoring bank accounts, avoiding saving card details on devices, and refraining from interacting with suspicious advertisements or links.

It added that individuals, companies, and institutions must take proactive steps to prevent identity theft and fraudulent transactions, which can result in significant financial losses if left undetected.

According to the council, 60 per cent of cyberattacks begin with the theft of login details. It urged users to avoid storing sensitive passwords on inadequately secured devices and to regularly review privacy settings on personal electronics.

Strong passwords and secure networks essential

The Cyber Security Council advised individuals to delete untrusted applications, enable two-factor authentication, and ensure that operating systems and software are updated regularly. These steps, it said, play a critical role in reducing vulnerabilities that cybercriminals exploit.

The council also cautioned against using open or free Wi-Fi networks for banking activities or financial transactions, noting that such networks are often unsecured and susceptible to breaches. Users were encouraged to create strong, unique passwords for banking and financial service accounts and to enable instant bank alerts to receive real-time notifications of account activity.

Such alerts allow users to respond quickly and report suspicious activity immediately in the event of a breach or electronic fraud.

Rising digital risks demand constant awareness

Reaffirming its guidance, the council highlighted the importance of remaining vigilant before clicking on electronic links or sharing personal or financial information. It noted that rapid technological development has increased both digital convenience and cyber risk, making sustained awareness essential.

Cybersecurity, the council added, has become one of the major challenges in the digital space. The preventive measures outlined complement ongoing government efforts to address digital challenges associated with rapid technological advancement.

The Cyber Pulse awareness campaign, launched for the second consecutive year across social media platforms, supports the UAE’s efforts to build a secure cyberspace. The campaign aims to protect users from growing digital risks, promote a culture of cybersecurity, enhance digital awareness among families and individuals, and strengthen cybersecurity practices to ensure the safety and privacy of citizens and residents amid the country’s rapid digital transformation.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has taken a major step in digital government innovation by launching its official services and customer experience through the ChatGPT Apps Directory.

The move signals a shift in how public services are delivered, positioning artificial intelligence (AI) at the center of customer engagement while reinforcing Dubai’s role as a global technology leader.

According to a WAM report, DEWA is now the first government entity and the first utility worldwide to offer its services directly through AI platforms, going beyond traditional websites and smart applications to meet customers where they increasingly operate.

A new era of government services

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA, said the initiative represents a fundamental transformation in service delivery.

Read more-DEWA accelerates clean energy transition with 1,000MW addition

“The ‘AI Integration and Operating Services’ initiative is a pivotal step in our journey to reshape government services in the AI era, transitioning from traditional digital interaction models to a comprehensive service system integrated with global AI platforms,” Al Tayer said.

He added that the integration allows users to access DEWA services through intelligent conversational interfaces, including ChatGPT and multi-agent systems.

Seamless access and future expansion

“Launching DEWA’s services through ChatGPT Apps Directory strengthens our pioneering role in adopting advanced smart solutions and delivering resilient, proactive and secure services,” Al Tayer said, noting that the initiative supports Dubai’s ambition to be a global hub for AI and sustainable innovation.

Through the ChatGPT platform, DEWA customers can access services such as bill inquiries, account details, billing support, EV Green Charger locations, directions to the nearest charging station, and information on Customer Happiness Centre locations, working hours and contact channels.

DEWA said additional services will be rolled out gradually, in line with its governance, security and privacy framework.

In a world defined by chronic stress, information overload, and accelerated ageing curves, the real question is no longer “What’s the next wellness trend?”
It’s “How do we design the human system to recover, adapt, and remain resilient under sustained pressure?”

At Longevity Wellness Hub, we approach longevity through data, diagnostics, and nervous-system intelligence — not biohacking theatre.

These are the seven principles I personally live by and the ones we see consistently extend healthspan, clarity, and resilience in high-performing individuals.

1. Start with data — intuition comes second

Longevity without diagnostics is guesswork. Most people optimise blindly, following trends without understanding how their body is actually responding.

We begin with advanced biometric and quantum-based assessments that reveal stress load, biological ageing markers, organ efficiency, micronutrient status, toxin burden, and bioelectrical coherence before symptoms appear. This allows interventions — whether nutritional, behavioural, or frequency-based — to be applied with precision rather than assumption.

Longevity works best when the signal is clear before the solution is chosen.

2. Recovery is not optional — it’s infrastructure

Recovery is not something you earn after burnout; it is part of the system.

The nervous system does not distinguish between physical training, cognitive overload, emotional pressure, or lack of sleep — it simply accumulates stress. If recovery is not engineered into the week, performance inevitably declines.

Cold exposure, infrared therapy, hyperbaric oxygen, and structured recovery modalities such as PEMF and vibroacoustic sessions provide the nervous system with clear signals of safety and restoration. These tools accelerate recovery by improving circulation, cellular communication, and autonomic balance — far beyond what passive rest can achieve.

3. Mitochondria determine your biological age

Ageing is not a calendar issue; it is a cellular energy issue.

Mitochondrial decline underpins fatigue, cognitive fog, metabolic slowdown, and accelerated ageing. Supporting mitochondrial function improves how the body produces energy, adapts to stress, and repairs itself.

Red light therapy, hyperbaric oxygen, and emerging biophoton-based plasma technologies support cellular repair pathways, ATP production, and oxidative stress reduction. The result is sustainable energy — not artificial stimulation.

4. Train smarter, not harder

Longevity-aligned training prioritises strength, mobility, and neurological resilience — not exhaustion.

Overtraining without sufficient regulation accelerates ageing and increases injury risk, particularly in high-stress individuals. Intelligent modalities such as Lagree, functional training, and mobility-focused strength work build resilience while protecting joints and the nervous system.

When training is paired with targeted recovery — including red light exposure — adaptation improves, and long-term performance is preserved.

5. Regulate stress at the nervous system level

You can eat well and train consistently, but if the nervous system remains locked in fight-or-flight, longevity remains theoretical.

Chronic sympathetic activation drives inflammation, hormonal disruption, poor sleep, and immune suppression. Regulation must happen at the neurological and bioelectrical level, not just through willpower.

Infrared heat, breath-led cold exposure, binaural audio, vibroacoustic therapy, and frequency-based technologies help guide the nervous system back toward parasympathetic balance through entrainment rather than force. Longevity improves when the system regains signal clarity.

6. Oxygen is a powerful longevity lever

As we age, oxygen utilisation efficiency declines — impacting cognition, endurance, vascular health, and recovery speed.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and hypoxic altitude training improve oxygen delivery and cellular adaptation. When oxygen support is combined with targeted frequency-based modalities, recovery accelerates and resilience increases.

Oxygen is not just fuel; it is information for the cell.

7. Longevity compounds in community

Longevity is not a solo pursuit.

Human connection is one of the strongest predictors of long-term health, influencing immune function, emotional regulation, and behavioural consistency. People rarely fail because they lack knowledge — they fail because they try to do it alone.

At Longevity Wellness Hub, community is intentionally designed into the experience, creating environments where consistency, recovery, and resilience compound naturally. Wellness should feel supportive, not isolating.

Longevity is not about adding years to life. It is about protecting clarity, strength, and adaptability across decades.

And that requires intelligent systems — not shortcuts.

The writer is the founder of Longevity Wellness Hub.

Read: Why the longevity obsession misses the point

At PropTech Connect Middle East, a senior construction panel made one thing clear: technology is no longer the hard part of transforming mega-project delivery. The real challenge lies in mindset, process, and alignment across a fragmented ecosystem.

Moderated by Leyla Abdimomunova, head of Real Estate & Construction at the Public Investment Fund, the session brought together delivery and digital leaders from across the region’s development and contracting landscape to unpack what it truly takes to scale innovation on giga-projects.

The panellists were Roger Fatovic, group chief projects delivery officer at ROSHN; Fady Sleiman, group chief information & digital officer at Albawani Holding; and Zakria Osman, corporate engineering lead at El Seif Contracting.

Opening the discussion, Abdimomunova challenged a common industry blind spot: construction talks endlessly about innovation, but adoption is where strategies usually fail.

For ROSHN, Fatovic said the motivation is not novelty, but necessity. “Scale, productivity and certainty,” he said, describing the three forces driving the developer’s technology agenda as it delivers thousands of homes across Saudi Arabia.

Sleiman echoed that sentiment from the contractor side, pointing instead to “optimisation, digitisation and data,” and the need for a single source of truth. Osman framed the driver more broadly as sustainability, digital transformation and smart solutions.

Across the panel, there was consensus that technology must serve clearly defined business outcomes, not act as a standalone objective.

From pilots to productivity

Fatovic outlined how ROSHN is deploying tools across the full project lifecycle, from AI-assisted document review during design and procurement to modern methods of construction on site. While precast remains a relatively traditional solution, he said the difference lies in scale.

ROSHN has partnered with China Harbour to build one of the Middle East’s largest precast factories in Riyadh, producing tens of thousands of panels and hundreds of columns each month. The ambition, however, goes beyond prefabrication. Fatovic stressed that testing, iteration and repeatability are central to achieving productivity gains.

At Albawani, Sleiman described a more foundational challenge. When he joined the company, he was struck by how little digital hardware was visible on active sites. Rather than rushing into platform selection, the company paused.

“We don’t want to just put a system in for the sake of putting a system,” he said, explaining that Albawani is redesigning core business processes and standard operating procedures before committing to large-scale construction management platforms.

That approach has already delivered tangible results in areas such as overtime management, where simple tablet-based tools helped address millions of riyals in monthly overruns. The company is also exploring real-time location systems and vision-based technologies, while acknowledging their current limitations.

El Seif’s experience offered a different perspective: what sustained commitment looks like over time. Osman traced the company’s digital journey back to 2019, when leadership set a clear objective to move from traditional to digital construction through an end-to-end transformation.

Rather than isolating innovation within engineering or IT, El Seif developed a roadmap covering every department, from tendering and procurement to construction and handover. BIM certification in 2020 marked a turning point, enabling company-wide alignment with international standards.

From there, the company expanded into prefabrication, robotics for tasks such as plastering, drone-based surveying and fully digital RFI workflows. Crucially, Osman said, no department was allowed to operate digitally in isolation while others remained analogue.

Why scaling still breaks down

Despite progress, scaling innovation remains difficult. For developers like ROSHN, cost structures can work against modern methods. Fatovic argued that years spent optimising traditional supply chains have distorted comparisons with MMC, especially when master purchase agreements are already delivering aggressive pricing.

But he identified a deeper issue. “Technology doesn’t fail because it doesn’t work. It fails because the ecosystem around it doesn’t change,” he said, pointing to examples where broken processes were simply digitised, or where MMC was introduced without standardising designs or addressing local regulations.

Sleiman expanded on that theme, framing transformation through four lenses: people, process, technology and data. Culture and capability, he argued, are the most underestimated risks.

“You’ve got people that have been working 20 years in construction in the same company,” he said. “It’s most likely they’re not the ones that are going to do a solid business process re-engineering exercise.”

To address delivery risk on mega-projects, Albawani is now evaluating advanced work packaging, a method borrowed from oil and gas that links modular construction to the critical path and improves coordination across subcontractors.

Osman highlighted the importance, and complexity, of owner–contractor relationships in driving technology adoption. Early engagement during concept design can unlock significant value, but resistance often emerges when innovation is perceived as risk or cost-shifting.

To overcome this, El Seif often pilots new technologies on its own projects, including its headquarters, before presenting data-backed results to clients. That track record has helped build trust, particularly on giga-projects aligned with Vision 2030.

Looking ahead, Osman argued that regulation has a decisive role to play. Drawing parallels with Dubai’s 2014 BIM mandate, he said markets often need to be pushed before benefits become obvious.

“Sometimes you need to force the people to go in this way,” he said, noting that once standards become mandatory, few stakeholders want to revert to old methods.

Mindset before machinery

As the session closed, the panel converged on a shared conclusion. Scaling construction technology is less about discovering new tools and more about changing what the industry values.

From Fatovic’s call to reward certainty and quality over lowest cost, to Sleiman’s emphasis on collaboration and standardised technology stacks, and Osman’s case for regulatory leadership, the message was consistent.

Industrialising construction at scale will require aligned incentives, disciplined processes, and leadership willing to rethink how success is measured. The technology, the panellists suggested, is already waiting.

Read: GCC construction salaries to rise modestly in 2026: FPA

Residents across the UAE can expect a mix of humid mornings, partly cloudy skies and intermittent rainfall over the coming days, as weather conditions fluctuate from Saturday through Wednesday, according to the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM).

Forecasters say morning humidity will increase on several days, raising the likelihood of mist and fog, particularly across coastal, western and internal areas. Cloud cover is expected to vary throughout the period, with a chance of rain affecting islands and parts of the coastal, northern and eastern regions, especially during the night hours and early mornings.

Read more-Changeable weather across UAE: Here’s what to expect

A WAM report said temperatures are expected to rise gradually through Monday before easing slightly across some coastal and western areas by Tuesday. Winds will remain generally light to moderate but may occasionally freshen, shifting in direction as weather systems move across the country.

The NCM has urged motorists to exercise caution during misty conditions that could reduce visibility and advised sea-goers to remain alert during periods of stronger winds.

Rain possible from Sunday, winds may strengthen

From Sunday, February 8, weather conditions are expected to remain partly cloudy to cloudy at times, particularly across coastal, northern and eastern regions. These areas may experience rainfall during daylight hours, with clouds increasing overnight.

Humidity levels are forecast to rise during the night and into Monday morning, increasing the chances of mist formation over coastal areas. Winds will blow from southwesterly to northwesterly directions at light to moderate speeds of 10 to 25 km/hr, occasionally strengthening and reaching up to 40 km/h in exposed areas.

Sea conditions in both the Arabian Gulf and the Oman Sea will range from slight to moderate, becoming rough at times, particularly toward northern waters.

Slight temperature dip expected on Monday

On Monday, February 9, weather conditions will be fair to partly cloudy, with low clouds appearing over some eastern and northern regions. Temperatures are expected to decrease slightly, especially across northern parts of the country.

Humidity will remain noticeable during the night and into Tuesday morning across coastal and internal areas, maintaining the potential for mist formation. Winds will shift from southeasterly to northwesterly directions, remaining light to moderate but freshening at times. Similar sea conditions are expected to continue in both the Arabian Gulf and the Oman Sea.

Fog risk returns midweek

By Tuesday, February 10, fair to partly cloudy conditions will persist, with low clouds developing over eastern regions. Increased humidity overnight and into Wednesday morning may lead to fog or mist formation, particularly across northern coastal and internal areas.

Winds are forecast to ease compared to earlier in the week, ranging between 10 and 20 km/h, while sea conditions will remain slight in both the Arabian Gulf and the Oman Sea.

On Wednesday, February 11, the country will continue to experience fair to partly cloudy weather, with low clouds appearing eastward. Winds will be light to moderate, blowing from southeasterly to northeasterly directions and occasionally freshening, with speeds reaching up to 35 km/hr. Sea conditions will remain slight to moderate in the Arabian Gulf and slight in the Oman Sea.