Major UAE orgs allegedly breached by Handala, massive data destruction claimed

Iran-nexus threat operation Handala has purportedly compromised the Dubai Courts Department, Dubai Land Department, and Dubai Roads and Transport Authority as part of a major cyberattack against the United Arab Emirates, which was claimed to have resulted in the destruction of 6 petabytes of data, as well as theft of 149 TB of sensitive information, according to Security Affairs.

Such an intrusion against the UAE's critical infrastructure has been launched in retaliation for the country leaders' "blatant betrayal of the Resistance Axis," said Handala in a post on its Tor website. Handala's attack claims follow its strikes against Israeli defense and critical communications engineering firm PSK Wind Technologies earlier this month, as well as major U.S. medical tech device manufacturer Stryker in March, from which it alleged wiping over 200,000 systems and pilfering nearly 50 TB of data. Handala, which has escalated cyberattacks since the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began in late February, also claimed breaching the personal email account of FBI Director Kash Patel.