News

Information technology (IT) in the Middle East

• April 09, 2021 09 Apr'21

  Global demand for IT and business services highest ever for first quarter

  Global demand for IT and business services began the year strongly, with a record first quarter

• March 29, 2021 29 Mar'21

  How Gulf SMEs are building digital resilience amid the pandemic

  SMEs in the Gulf region have accelerated their digital transformations during the Covid-19 pandemic

• March 29, 2021 29 Mar'21

  How far has open banking come in Europe?

  Open banking is a relatively new concept, having come into effect in Europe only in the last couple of years. So what is the state of play?

• February 18, 2021 18 Feb'21

  Fingerprints will help payment cards retain relevance

  Biometric payment cards using fingerprint technology could add billions to global banking revenues, says UBS

• February 16, 2021 16 Feb'21

  TransferGo to harness Google-inspired tech capability

  Payments fintech TransferGo chooses cloud-native core banking platform to build a digital wallet and expand its services

• February 16, 2021 16 Feb'21

  Qatar regulator launches platform to monitor human understanding of financial crime

  Qatari financial services regulator works with global body to provide digital platform to assess whether financial services workers understand how to prevent financial crime

• February 02, 2021 02 Feb'21

  Nordic countries dominate European online banking take-up

  Nordics dominate online banking take-up in Europe, but the UK is not far behind

• January 26, 2021 26 Jan'21

  Saudi IT spending to hit $11bn in 2021

  Saudi Arabian organisations will spend about $11bn on IT this year, with emerging technologies high on shopping lists

• January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21

  Bahrain hopes 5G roll-out will attract more tech firms to its shores

  Bahrain has completed its 5G roll-out, which will support its IT infrastructure in creating the right environment for technology firms

• January 11, 2021 11 Jan'21

  Jobs in fintech bounce back after brief lockdown lull

  Fintechs and payments companies need to make staff recruitment a priority as talent pool shrinks

• December 24, 2020 24 Dec'20

  Top 10 Middle East stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Middle East stories of 2020

• December 15, 2020 15 Dec'20

  Covid-19 sparks boom in Middle East digital payments sector

  Stubborn cash use could fall in the Middle East after an acceleration in the take-up of digital payments amid the coronavirus pandemic

• November 30, 2020 30 Nov'20

  $60m Middle East tech fund targets 120 startups

  Venture capital fund expects rapid regional technology growth in the post-Covid-19 world

• November 13, 2020 13 Nov'20

  IT Priorities 2020: European IT budget share reflects home-working challenges brought by Covid

  European organisations are being forced to redivert more limited budgets during the pandemic

• October 22, 2020 22 Oct'20

  Saudi Arabian authorities work with Chinese IT giants on digital goals

  Saudi Arabia has signed two agreements with Chinese IT suppliers as it strives to deliver its ambitious programme to diversify its economy

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  Saudi Arabia sees cyber security boom as coronavirus bites

  Saudi Arabian CIOs have been forced to increase their security posture as the Covid-19 pandemic transforms working methods

• September 09, 2020 09 Sep'20

  Abu Dhabi government launches peer-to-peer coding campus

  Abu Dhabi government launches a specialist programming school that uses peer-to-peer teaching methods and gamification

• August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20

  Netherlands investigates innovative privacy technology SSI

  Dutch research organisation is looking into areas where self-sovereign identity technology could be used in society and business

• August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20

  Egypt’s datacentre plans take key step forward

  Government lays the foundations for a datacentre industry with its new data protection law

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  Aramex ships in Rackspace Technology to accelerate datacentre downsizing and move to AWS cloud

  Dubai-based international shipping and logistics firm Aramex is in the midst of a cloud-focused digital transformation designed to tighten up its last-mile delivery operations with the help of Rackspace Technology

• July 15, 2020 15 Jul'20

  Huge declines in traditional outsourcing as Covid-19 puts a stop on deals

  Traditional IT outsourcing deals value plummets in the last quarter as contracts dry up amid Covid-19 disruption

• June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20

  Egypt offers free tech scholarship to 100,000 citizens

  Egypt's youths are being offered free training to help them to prepare for the careers of the future

• June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20

  How Saudi Arabia is using cloud to navigate the Covid-19 downturn

  Organisations in Saudi Arabia are using cloud computing services to help them navigate challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic

• May 20, 2020 20 May'20

  Coronavirus: Pandemic spurs QR code app upgrade at PayPal

  PayPal introduces QR code payment functionality to its mobile app to support social distancing

• May 20, 2020 20 May'20

  Coronavirus: Bahrain sees fintech take-up surge amid Covid-19 crisis

  Covid-19 has spurred the use of financial technology in Bahrain, which could boost the industry in the country and wider Gulf region

• May 18, 2020 18 May'20

  Flagship digital investment at Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc pays off

  Abu Dhabi National Oil Company sees flagship digital project in high demand after proving its value in responding to the Covid-19 crisis

• May 11, 2020 11 May'20

  Coronavirus: SMEs in the UAE forced to digitally transform

  The UAE, like the rest of the world, continues to be heavily impacted by the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, and technology is helping to lead the fight

• May 06, 2020 06 May'20

  Cash use to go below 5% of total spending in Middle East

  Banks expect a rapid reduction of the use of cash in the region

• May 05, 2020 05 May'20

  Coronavirus: Total outsourcing spending collapses in March

  IT spending plunged in March, drastically reducing increases that had been expected in the EMEA region

• April 09, 2020 09 Apr'20

  How Bolt plans to be more uber than Uber

  Overcoming competitors with brand names that have become part of the modern vernacular is a challenge Estonia-based Bolt has set itself as it takes on Uber

• March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20

  Estonia offers digital tools to countries struggling with coronavirus school closures

  Government and tech companies in Baltic state unite to offer advanced digital learning tools to other countries

• March 17, 2020 17 Mar'20

  UN identifies tech companies working in Occupied Palestinian Territories

  United Nations Human Rights Office report names a number of technology companies that could be involved in violating human rights

• March 12, 2020 12 Mar'20

  CIO interview: Miguel Rio Tinto, Emirates NBD

  The Dubai-based banking group’s CIO, Miguel Rio Tinto, talks about its ambitious digital transformation plans

• March 10, 2020 10 Mar'20

  IT Priorities 2020: IP network investments top priority for Middle East IT leaders

  IT leaders in the Middle East expect to see increased spending on IP networks as digital transformation continues across the region

• February 26, 2020 26 Feb'20

  Thousands of UK entrepreneurs register businesses in Estonia since Brexit referendum

  UK entrepreneurs are registering businesses in Estonia to make sure they can continue to trade freely in the EU

• February 25, 2020 25 Feb'20

  Mastercard creates 1,500 tech jobs in Ireland

  New roles at tech hub in Dublin will include professionals with expertise in artificial intelligence, cyber security, blockchain and user experience

• February 04, 2020 04 Feb'20

  Azimo gets loan from European Investment Bank to build cross-border payments infrastructure in EU

  UK fintech gets validation from EIB through €20m loan which will contribute to building its smartphone app-based payments infrastructure

• February 03, 2020 03 Feb'20

  New jobs in Ireland as Brexit forces Revolut to migrate work from London

  Brexit has pushed the financial technology firm into moving London jobs to Ireland

• February 03, 2020 03 Feb'20

  Cost-cutting and digital transformation spur increased European IT outsourcing in 2019

  The need to rein in costs while digitally transforming has led to growth in traditional and as-a-service base outsourcing

• January 31, 2020 31 Jan'20

  Estonian CIO gives UK IT professionals hope as Brexit removes rights

  Tech chief says Estonia’s door is open to UK IT professionals if they want to continue enjoying an EU lifestyle

• January 22, 2020 22 Jan'20

  UK and EU AI communities will only be globally significant if they work as one

  The European Union and the UK will be left behind in artificial intelligence research and development if they take separate paths after Brexit

• January 21, 2020 21 Jan'20

  Two-fifths of Middle East IT staff would change job for more money

  IT professionals in the Middle East are mostly motivated by money when it comes to finding a new job, according to a Computer Weekly survey

• January 20, 2020 20 Jan'20

  Over a quarter of Middle East businesses have no women in their IT department

  Businesses in the Middle East are failing to balance their IT workforces between men and women, and a quarter have no women in IT roles

• January 13, 2020 13 Jan'20

  Travelex to begin restoring foreign exchange services two weeks after ‘Sodinokibi’ attack

  Travelex says it is making “good progress” in its recovery and is to begin restoring electronic foreign exchange services, but is silent about whether it has agreed to pay hackers a $6m ransom to decrypt computer files

• January 09, 2020 09 Jan'20

  Travelex hackers threaten to sell credit card data on dark web

  Sodinokibi cyber gangsters have threatened to sell Travelex customers’ private data on a Russian underground cyber crime forum if it fails to pay a $6m ransom

• January 06, 2020 06 Jan'20

  Cyber gangsters demand payment from Travelex after ‘Sodinokibi’ attack

  Cyber criminals are demanding payment to decrypt Travelex’s computer files after a devastating malware attack. New questions have been raised about the security of Travelex’s computer network after it emerged the company waited eight months to patch...

• January 03, 2020 03 Jan'20

  Suspected ransomware attack causes worldwide disruption for Travelex

  Travelex switches off computer systems and resorts to cash-only currency sales after malware attack. Insiders claim the currency exchange chain has been hit by ransomware which has left critical files containing customer data encrypted

• December 24, 2019 24 Dec'19

  Top 10 enterprise IT in the Middle East stories of 2019

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 enterprise IT in the Middle East stories of 2019

• December 18, 2019 18 Dec'19

  How Saudi Arabia plans to become the Silicon Valley of the Middle East

  With its young and educated population, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become a hub for tech innovation

• December 11, 2019 11 Dec'19

  How can CIOs in Europe turn innovation into a competitive advantage?

  CIOs across Europe are under pressure to innovate to help businesses grow and must think differently as a result

• December 09, 2019 09 Dec'19

  Cloud computing surges in the UAE in 2019

  Cloud computing take-up saw a significant acceleration in the Middle East throughout this year

• December 09, 2019 09 Dec'19

  Dubai’s Kentech kicks off digital transformation drive

  Energy and industrial support company will go live in Oracle’s cloud next month

• November 21, 2019 21 Nov'19

  Swiss packaging manufacturer powers digital maintenance with GE and ServiceMax

  Carton and packaging company SIG, which also sells IoT-connected machines to food and beverage firms, has developed a digital maintenance service

• November 21, 2019 21 Nov'19

  Collaboration is key to rapid adoption of govtech across Europe

  Government technology is spreading across Europe, but policy-makers and senior civil servants are still figuring out best practices

• November 11, 2019 11 Nov'19

  Zain taps Ericsson for 5G network

  Zain commissions Ericsson for 5G technology to meet growing data traffic demands and deliver high-quality mobile broadband and fixed wireless experiences, encompassing new business in the automotive, health and energy sectors

• November 07, 2019 07 Nov'19

  Saudis recruited Twitter employees to spy on critics

  Court documents reveal how the Saudi Arabian government targeted Twitter employees as part of a coordinated effort to gather information on known dissidents

• November 07, 2019 07 Nov'19

  Abu Dhabi AI university is key to UAE’s future as the oil dries up

  Abu Dhabi’s fledgling artificial intelligence university is part of a highly ambitious 30-year plan to transform the UAE’s economy and culture

• November 04, 2019 04 Nov'19

  Thousands apply to Abu Dhabi AI University in first week

  Artificial intelligence university in Abu Dhabi gets more than 3,000 applications in the week following its application process being opened

• October 23, 2019 23 Oct'19

  Interview: Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, head of digital, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

  Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi is leading digital developments at Abu Dhabi's state-owned oil giant

• October 22, 2019 22 Oct'19

  Abu Dhabi National Oil Company uses blockchain for inter-group network

  The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is using blockchain internally, with plans to expand it beyond the group boundaries

• October 17, 2019 17 Oct'19

  Abu Dhabi AI university open for applications

  New university in UAE aims to enable students, businesses and governments to increase the use of artificial intelligence technology

• October 10, 2019 10 Oct'19

  UK and Middle East PR firm ditches NetApp for Nutanix and Talon Fast

  Four Communications needed better connectivity for collaboration between the UK and its gulf sites, so dumped server/storage for hyper-converged and a distributed file system

• October 09, 2019 09 Oct'19

  CIO interview: Mohamed Sater, head of IT at Mumtalakat

  Mumtalakat’s head of IT, Mohamed Sater, is modernising the IT infrastructure of the organisation through cloud computing

• September 30, 2019 30 Sep'19

  Dubai’s Precision Group takes manufacturing into the cloud

  Head of IT at mould and packaging company talks about leading its digital transformation programme

• September 18, 2019 18 Sep'19

  Facebook automatically generates pages for Islamic State and Al-Qaeda

  Facebook algorithms have auto-generated hundreds of Facebook pages for the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia, according to a whistleblower

• September 17, 2019 17 Sep'19

  Inside Oman’s new tech startup drive

  Oman is aspiring to be a tech startup hub and is on a mission to compete with its neighbours in the Gulf

• August 19, 2019 19 Aug'19

  First government organisation in Bahrain migrates to Amazon Web Services

  Sovereign wealth fund’s internal IT team handled migration process, which has slashed the organisation’s technology operational costs

• August 14, 2019 14 Aug'19

  GDPR faces growing pains across Europe

  The General Data Protection Regulation is over a year old now, but it faces challenges across Europe where compliance has taken place at different speeds

• July 31, 2019 31 Jul'19

  Middle East businesses welcome Amazon Web Services region launch

  Bahrain AWS region, with three datacentres, links Middle East to AWS's global network and will help to accelerate digital transformation

• July 15, 2019 15 Jul'19

  Organisations turn to AI in race against cyber attackers

  Businesses are racing to automate their defences as hackers and nation states launch increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks

• June 28, 2019 28 Jun'19

  Interview: Yasmeen Al Sharaf, head of fintech and innovation unit, Central Bank of Bahrain

  Yasmeen Al Sharaf heads up financial technology strategy at Bahrain’s central bank, which is on a mission to grow and diversify the sector in the Middle East island state

• June 25, 2019 25 Jun'19

  Saudi banks trial blockchain-based identity technology at ATMs

  Biometric and blockchain technologies are being used in tandem to provide ID verification at Saudi Arabian cash machines

• June 10, 2019 10 Jun'19

  Etihad Airways uses artificial intelligence to source ideas from staff

  UAE airline works with tech startup to create a platform to help it apply employees’ ideas to address business challenges

• June 05, 2019 05 Jun'19

  Emirates NBD builds bank of future with Amazon Web Services

  UAE bank is accessing the latest technology through a close relationship with IT giant Amazon Web Services

• May 31, 2019 31 May'19

  Facebook loses bid to halt European court decision on EU-US data sharing

  Irish Supreme Court dismisses attempt by Facebook to prevent the European Court of Justice considering the validity of US-EU data transfers, after Austrian lawyer Max Schrems argued that they put the privacy of EU citizens at risk

• May 28, 2019 28 May'19

  Saudi Arabia’s largest auto company completes SAP project as part of digital transformation

  Abdul Latif Jameel Motors wins SAP Quality Gold Award for digital revamp programme that overhauled performance and efficiency across its business

• May 21, 2019 21 May'19

  Middle East Interview: Dubai-based Fetchr

  Delivery app Fetchr is spreading across the Middle East with its mobile-to-mobile delivery service. We talk to its founder

• May 15, 2019 15 May'19

  Facebook engaged in ‘calculated’ campaign to eliminate competition, claims businessman

  A US businessman is seeking damages from Facebook after accusing the social media company of unfairly blocking “humorous” Facebook pages which generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue

• May 09, 2019 09 May'19

  Facebook co-founder: ‘It is time to break up Facebook’

  Co-founder of Facebook, Chris Hughes, has published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for Facebook to be broken up, as it faces investigations from the US Federal Trade Commission

• May 01, 2019 01 May'19

  Middle East Interview: Bahrain fintech drive gathers speed

  Bahrain wants to be a launchpad into the wider region for financial technology firms looking to scale

• April 26, 2019 26 Apr'19

  Facebook faces fresh privacy actions from regulators

  Facebook faces legal action from Canada after it dismissed regulators’ findings that it failed to protect customer privacy. The firm has set aside $5bn to settle a privacy action in the US and faces a new investigation in Ireland

• April 23, 2019 23 Apr'19

  Egypt aims to develop coding skills earlier in education system

  An Egyptian government initiative will see thousands of teenagers trained to code in HTML, CSS and Python

• April 18, 2019 18 Apr'19

  Etihad Airways automates customer and luggage journey monitoring

  National airline of United Arab Emirates, Etihad Airways, will improve passenger journeys through automated monitoring

• April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19

  Middle East CIOs optimistic as budgets increase and digital transformations expand

  Cyber security and risk management will see the biggest increase in spending, but digital transformation of businesses is a major driver of investment, survey shows

• April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19

  Facebook takes extraordinary legal steps to contain document leak

  Facebook targets journalists and news organisations for computer searches

• April 10, 2019 10 Apr'19

  Skype blocked in UAE will hit businesses as well as people

  Skype has been blocked to users in the United Arab Emirates, and its effects will be felt by businesses as well as citizens

• April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19

  Huawei reports record numbers despite tumultuous year

  Huawei has become one of the world’s largest technology companies by revenue, suggesting the accusations over its ties to the Chinese government are failing to have much impact

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  Middle East countries accelerate quantum computing research

  Gulf countries must invest in quantum computing research to ensure they continue to to remain digital pioneers

• March 14, 2019 14 Mar'19

  Met Police collaborated with US prosecutors in WikiLeaks investigation

  The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it exchanged information on WikiLeaks staff in the UK with the US Department of Justice, which is conducting criminal investigations into the organisation

• March 13, 2019 13 Mar'19

  Revolutionising patient booking in the Gulf

  Startup in the Gulf region is applying digital technology to solve the inefficiencies in medical appointment booking processes

• March 04, 2019 04 Mar'19

  UK among most expensive countries for mobile data

  The UK ranks 136th in the world for the average cost of 1GB of mobile data, according to new statistics

• March 02, 2019 02 Mar'19

  Facebook asked George Osborne to influence EU data protection law

  Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg invited one of the chancellor’s children to Facebook’s office as part of a intensive lobbying programme to influence European data protection legislation

• February 22, 2019 22 Feb'19

  Facebook planned to spy on Android phone users, internal emails reveal

  Facebook planned to use its Android app to track the location of its customers and to allow advertisers to send political advertising and invites to dating sites to ‘single’ people, confidential documents show

• February 20, 2019 20 Feb'19

  Estonia redoubles efforts to attract global IT talent

  IT professionals from all over the world are being lured to Estonia through a government recruitment campaign

• January 21, 2019 21 Jan'19

  Bahrain plans to create a world-leading tech ecosystem

  Bahrain is building a technology ecosystem that will help the country further reduce its economic reliance on the oil and gas industry

• December 27, 2018 27 Dec'18

  Top 10 Middle East stories of 2018

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Middle East enterprise IT stories of 2018

• November 26, 2018 26 Nov'18

  China leapfrogs US in supercomputer deployments

  China has more than twice the number of supercomputers than the US, and it is finding a ready market for its Lenovo supercomputers among US tech companies in Ireland, the latest top 500 supercomputer list reveals

• November 06, 2018 06 Nov'18

  Smart Dubai platform is the backbone of the city's transformation

  Aisha bin Bishr, director general at Smart Dubai Office, talks about the Smart Data platform and soon-to-be-unveiled UAE Pass, a digital ID and signature which is being touted as one of the foundations a city needs to transform

• November 06, 2018 06 Nov'18

  GSMA urges fresh action on 5G mobile spectrum

  Mobile industry body says time is running out to ready enough radio frequency spectrum in the appropriate bands to account for the demands of 5G mobile networks

• November 01, 2018 01 Nov'18

  How Bahrain plans to become a regional fintech hub

  Bahrain is a small island with big plans for its financial technology industry