A Study of Cyber Laws in the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates, as a developing country has been experiencing cybercrime even more rapidly in the recent years. The overall Internet penetration as well as the use of cyber-based systems in Critical Infrastructure is growing with a never seen pace in the country just as in the rest of the world. UAE has emerged to be on the forefront of many technological advances in the recent past. However, in the case of technological advances security advances must follow or the whole state becomes vulnerable. In the modern world there are several options for a state that wants to improve its cyber-security, co-operating with various international agencies. This report will consist of an overview of the existing cyber laws in the United Arab Emirates “UAE”. This will include a brief explanation of each law. Sensational cases of cyber-crimes along with the illustration of how the existence of cyber laws or their lack affected the prosecution of the individuals in question. On occasions of cases where prosecution was difficult, a preview is provided of how the scenario would have been had there been proper laws put in to deal with such cases. In continuation of that is a comparative study of these laws and the laws present in technologically well-developed nations such as the USA, England, and other nations. There is a focus particularly on England since it is one of the first countries to implement cyber laws in response to cyber-crimes. Finally, suggestive steps have been included which can considerably improve the control of cyber-crimes, especially in fast-developing regions like the UAE. UAE has long been rather passive when it comes to international cooperation in security. The main driving force of the research is the constantly growing importance of cyber security all around the world, and especially in the UAE