Saudi Arabia’s efforts to develop its cyber capacities are starting to bear fruit, just as domestic business opportunities are starting to dry up for its neighbour and rival, the United Arab Emirates, Intelligence Online revealed in a report issued this week.
According to the report, the kingdom, which is determined to play a regional role, is using soft and hard power to boost its efforts to attract the latest technology.
To challenge Dubai’s GISEC cybersecurity trade fair, Saudi Arabia now has its new Black Hat (formerly @Hack) event, a regional version of the big American cybersecurity event.
The report said that Riyadh uses Spire Solutions deal to attract fresh cyber education capacity.
In a similar vein, others, like American intelligence company Intel 471 (IO, 24/11/22), have decided to give priority to the Saudi market.
Responsibility for this side of the business has been partly put in the hands of Haboob, a company set up in 2018 at the behest of the crown prince’s former adviser Saud Al-Qahtani.
The company has recruited the court’s best hackers, including Saleh al-Haqbani, who is today its head.
MBS’ extravagant spending
Observes have recently raised concerns over the Crown Prince’s extravagant spending on espionage activities and repression campaigns after several western media sources revealed the Saudi unprecedented spending over the past few years.
Reuters news agency has revealed that NEOM Tech & Digital, a subsidiary of the $500 billion signature NEOM project of the Saudi crown prince, has invested $1 billion in 2022 in AI, including a metaverse platform.
The Wall Street Journal also said that MBS spent $50 million on his accession ceremony.
The paper further revealed that boats carrying some 150 women, from Brazil, Russia and elsewhere, docked in the summer of 2015 at Velaa Private Island, an opulent Maldives resort. Upon arrival, each woman was driven in a golf cart to a clinic, tested for sexually transmitted diseases and settled into a private villa.
For its part, the New York Times said that MBS bought the Chateau Louis XIV for over $300 million in 2015.
The 2015 purchase appears to be one of several extravagant acquisitions — including a $500 million yacht and a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting — by a prince who is leading a sweeping crackdown on corruption and self-enrichment by the Saudi elite and preaching fiscal austerity at home, according to the US paper.
Saudi economy is far from reality
US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that Saudi success in transforming its society and its economy is far from guaranteed. Much can go wrong, and certainly much will go wrong.
According to the center, there remains a huge concentration of power at the center, and that will both help and hurt Saudi reform efforts
