Microsoft recently brought together industry experts and prominent technology decision makers at a media event in Dubai to demonstrate how Gulf-based organisations can use cloud services to protect themselves against cyber threats. The GCC region has, over the past decade, become a hot zone for cyberattacks, due to the acceleration of Internet and mobile penetration and relatively high average net worth among its citizens. In 2017, the popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to increase the number of endpoints available to cyber criminals and hacktivists, leading to a marked surge in breaches. As the region's enterprises and public bodies continue to adopt technologies like cloud computing to digitally transform their businesses, Microsoft believes service providers and their customers will need to address the demand for fresh policies and procedures that consider the evolving threat landscape. Cyberattacks are responsible for widespread disruption and losses in productivity and growth.