The Signals Intelligence Agency (SIA), formerly known as the National Electronic Security Authority (NESA), is the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy obj ...

. It was deemed as the equivalent of the NSA.

History

In response to alleged

cyber spying Cyber espionage, cyber spying, or cyber-collection is the act or practice of obtaining secrets and information without the permission and knowledge of the holder of the information using methods on the Internet, networks or individual computers th ...

on opponents of Iran's best interests by the government of Iran during 2010 and 2011, the United States assisted the United Arab Emirates in late 2011 with establishing NESA. Created in 2012 through a Federal Decree Law, one of its official objectives is to organize the protection of the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

's communications network and information systems.

Activities

The agency participated in

Project Raven DarkMatter Group is a computer security company founded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2014 or 2015. The company has described itself as a purely defensive company; however, in 2016, it became a contractor for Project Raven, helping the ...

, a confidential initiative to help the

surveil other governments, militants, and human rights activists. In 2014, Project Raven helped the SIA (NESA at the time) break up an

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

network in the

. In December 2019, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that the SIA or other Emirati intelligence services used ToTok, a

messaging app A message is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to co ...

widely used by the Emirati public, to record all conversations, movements, relationships, appointments, sounds and images by the app's users.

Schools

In May 2014, NESA launched Cyber Quest, a competition for school and university students. , CyberQuest is on its 5th edition. And it has several social media accounts that cover the competition including a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account and

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

Account.

References

Signals intelligence agencies United Arab Emirates federal entities National law enforcement agencies of the United Arab Emirates {{UAE-stub

History

Activities

Schools

See also

References