Dubai employees are being trained to spot phishing scams, investigate simulated cyberattacks and identify digital risks through interactive cybersecurity exercises at Dubai Municipality’s Cybersecurity Week.
Cybersecurity training puts employees to the test
The programme, running from October 27 to 29 at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Creek, features practical exercises developed by Dubai-based Exploit3rs Cybersecurity Academy.
The activities aim to help employees recognise digital threats and respond to potential security incidents through realistic workplace scenarios, rather than relying solely on conventional awareness presentations.
The programme includes a Cyber Escape Room, interactive touchscreen missions and a live-hacking workshop designed for people with different levels of technical knowledge.
Cyber Escape Room challenges teams to solve a cybercrime case
The Cyber Escape Room gives participants approximately 20 minutes to investigate a simulated cybercrime incident.
Working in small teams, participants must decrypt passwords, identify phishing emails, locate confidential files and analyse digital evidence to identify a simulated attacker.
Exploit3rs specialists guide participants through the exercise, which is designed to demonstrate how cybersecurity risks can emerge in everyday workplace activities.
Five interactive missions focus on common cyber risks
The Cyber Missions programme uses touchscreen kiosks to explore five areas of cybersecurity: account compromise, password security, USB device risks, email phishing and fraudulent requests to change payment details.
Each mission takes around three to four minutes. Participants first explore how a digital scam might be carried out before experiencing a similar situation from the perspective of an employee who could become a target.
The exercises are available in Arabic and English. According to the academy, they do not assign participant scores or collect and retain personal information.
Live-hacking workshop highlights everyday vulnerabilities
A workshop titled “Who’s Watching?” is scheduled for October 28, led by Fares Hassanin, Head of Cyber Range and Education at Exploit3rs Cybersecurity Academy.
The session will demonstrate how an apparently routine email attachment could expose a laptop’s webcam to unauthorised access, as well as how an outdated Windows computer could be compromised without action from its user.
The second demonstration will use a vulnerability from the same family associated with the WannaCry ransomware outbreak, which disrupted computer systems worldwide in 2017.
The workshop will also cover seven practical cybersecurity habits and explain the steps employees should take during the first five minutes after a suspected security breach.
Academy plans to expand training across the UAE
Exploit3rs plans to make its three training formats available to more government entities and private-sector organisations across the UAE.
The proposed expansion would allow organisations to host Cyber Escape Rooms at their premises, install interactive Cyber Missions kiosks and arrange cybersecurity workshops in Arabic and English.
Juma Alshamsi, Founder and CEO of Exploit3rs Cybersecurity Academy, said the approach is intended to help employees develop a deeper understanding of how cyberattacks work.
“Most cybersecurity awareness programmes show employees a suspicious email and ask whether they would have recognised it. The answer is often yes. Through our participation in Dubai Municipality’s Cybersecurity Week, we are taking a more practical approach by giving employees the opportunity to construct simulated phishing scenarios themselves before encountering similar threats in realistic workplace situations. This allows them to develop a deeper understanding of cyber risks and assess their actual ability to identify potential attacks,” Alshamsi said.
Dubai Municipality’s wider Cybersecurity Week programme also covers workplace fraud, social engineering, children’s digital safety and emerging cyber threats linked to artificial intelligence.
Based in Dubai, Exploit3rs provides practical cybersecurity training and operates Hacking Dungeon, a platform offering environments for vulnerability discovery and simulated cyberattacks. The academy says it has trained approximately 4,000 people, organised 23 specialised events and developed more than 300 practical cybersecurity laboratories.
