"[...] this is the first anthology to specifically investigate the history and state of cyber warfare in the Middle East. It gathers an array of technical practitioners, social science scholars, and legal experts to provide a panoramic overview and cross-sectional analysis covering four main areas: ... privacy and civil society; the types of cyber conflict; information and influence operations; and methods of countering extremism online. The book highlights the real threat of hacktivism and informational warfare between state actors and the specific issues affecting the MENA region. These include digital authoritarianism and malware attacks in the Middle East, analysis of how ISIS and the Syrian electronic army use the internet, and the impact of disinformation and cybercrime in the Gulf. The book captures the flashpoints and developments in cyber conflict in the past 10 years and offers a snapshot of the region's still-early cyber history. It also clarifies how cyber warfare may develop in the near- to medium-term future and provides ideas of how its greatest risks can be avoided." (Publisher description) more

"This chapter explores the current wave of coronavirus-related digital crackdowns in the Arab region, which are unfolding in multiple forms, and analyzes its causes, contexts, and consequences. It explores why and how the stifling of media freedom and freedom of speech online in the Arab region has ... been exacerbated in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and sheds light on the various tools and mechanisms of control being used by Arab regimes to ensure that the official, state-orchestrated narrative around the pandemic dominates all communication platforms, both online and offline. In doing so, the chapter unpacks a number of methods of control that are being deployed by Arab regimes to achieve this end, ranging from closing down websites to arresting local journalists and ousting international correspondents, as well as exploiting punitive legal codes and laws to tighten their grip on all communication outlets, under the mantle of countering disinformation. It also sheds light on a closely-intertwined dimension in these new cyberwars, namely reliance on online surveillance and contact tracing tools and applications, which are justified by regimes as part of the effort to curb the spread of the deadly pandemic, but which simultaneously, and dangerously, open the door to threats to personal security, invasion of privacy, and government hacking of opposition. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the most important consequences and implications of these complex, and interconnected, phenomena, as well as the paradoxes and dilemmas they pose." (Abstract) more