News

Information technology (IT) in the Middle East

• 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

• October 24, 2018 24 Oct'18

  Autonomous taxi trials underway in Dubai

  Dubai’s transport authority has started road testing the region’s first autonomous taxi, designed in partnership with Dubai Silicon Oasis and DG World

• October 23, 2018 23 Oct'18

  CIOs and the cloud: The future of European enterprise software

  European organisations are moving to the cloud rapidly, but trepidation remains in concerning certain aspects, such as security

• October 18, 2018 18 Oct'18

  Dubai Health Authority unveils virtual health app for GP consultations

  Health authority adopts new technology as part of the Dubai Future Accelerators initiative

• October 18, 2018 18 Oct'18

  Middle East gears up for 5G

  The race for 5G is well and truly under way, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia are well positioned to be among the first countries in the world to deliver the benefits of this new telecoms protocol

• October 18, 2018 18 Oct'18

  Best of VMworld Europe 2018 Awards nominations now open until 26 October

  Read the criteria for the Best of VMworld Europe User Awards and find out how to submit your nomination

• October 15, 2018 15 Oct'18

  Big expectations, huge presence: Gitex 2018 opens

  Artificial intelligence, blockchain, 5G, robotics, and virtual and augmented reality are all in the spotlight at Gitex Technology Week 2018 in Dubai

• September 26, 2018 26 Sep'18

  At the new Cisco, culture is as important as innovation

  Cisco’s newly appointed SVP of Emear, Wendy Mars, shares her thoughts on the state of network innovation within the industry, and explains why cultural change is just as important an element of a digital strategy

• September 24, 2018 24 Sep'18

  InfoWatch opens training centre to help address Middle East skills shortage

  Security supplier offers Middle East customers cyber security and digital training facility as organisations in the region struggle to equip staff with latest skills

• September 17, 2018 17 Sep'18

  Middle East hungry for digitisation, says GE’s Bill Ruh

  The Middle East is among the most enthusiastic regions in terms of applying digital business models to traditional industries

• September 13, 2018 13 Sep'18

  TechUK blasts European Parliament-backed revamp of EU-wide copyright laws

  Tech industry trade body claims the changes spell bad news for web users, after European Parliament MEPs vote in favour of plans to modernise the copyright laws for the digital age

• September 12, 2018 12 Sep'18

  FCA warns it cannot manage financial crime risks without sharing data with EU

  FCA admits it will be unable to manage financial crime effectively if it cannot share data with EU authorities.

• August 29, 2018 29 Aug'18

  IT leaders at a crossroads as they grapple with digital technology

  CIOs have the opportunity to influence their company strategy as digital technology reshapes business. A survey of CIOs across 70 countries charts a path for IT leaders through emerging technologies

• August 24, 2018 24 Aug'18

  Dubai Health Authority launches artificial intelligence strategy

  Healthcare organisation is rolling out next-generation technology in its health facilities to improve patient care