Digital trust can be improved, not fully restored, say experts

Trust, which has been compromised, because of the challenges in the World Wide Web, is not totally lost.

K & L Gates LLP Partner lawyer Guillermo Christensen, US Consul General in Dubai and the Northern Emirates Robert Raines and META-GCC Policy Manager Mariam Obaid AlMheiri discussed this with Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy Associate Professor Rikard Jalkebro by way of the “Governing Digital Trust – Diplomacy Public Policy and Cyber-Security in a Connected World.”

“The importance of these kinds of engagement, these open and inclusive conversations about cyber-security is absolutely essential on one and several ways because on the fundamental level, cyberspace and cyber-security are shared,” Raines told Gulf Today, ahead of the panel discussion.

Interviewed, Christensen, 20 years in government, former Central Intelligence Agency officer and diplomat, said: “It was in the early days when we already knew that we could use the Internet for all kinds of bad things because it was not designed to be secure. The Internet was designed to be open. There was nothing built into it to ensure that you are who you are. It is easy to impersonate someone. That is the source of a lot of problems.”

He was asked on what he had detailed at the panel, concerning the Internet, credibility and the eroded digital trust.

“But that is understandable because there was no mechanism possible necessarily back then to create that digital trust that we were talking about,” added Christensen who, aside from being in the UAE, was also in Kuwait where he talked about the relevance of governments being digital future ready.

The tour was part of a US State Department programme whereby authorities from various fields are invited to talk about their and the American experience on their expertise – for Christensen, it was cyber-security, national security and Artificial Intelligence – and for them to also learn about the best practices of other countries.

He emphasised that trust can only be “improved” as “realistically,” it could never be restored “completely.” Thus, a solution is for everyone to build a “healthy sense of paranoia. Do not trust things that you do not know for sure you can verify. For instance an email” that asks a stranger to send money.

“People do it all the time because people are living in a world that no longer exists. That we have to trust people. But that is no longer the world we have right now...You have to understand that the technology that you are dealing with does not create trust unless you very carefully pick the right technology,” said Christensen.

Christensen stressed that cyber-security issues could be tackled if and when the “many laws” are strictly enforced “like what the UAE and the US are doing.”

From the panel, he had cautioned on the rapid development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum Computing (QC). Unmonitored and wrongfully utilised, AI and QC lead to more serious digital threats and worsen current cyber-security concerns.

Christensen pointed out that governments must be able to provide a safe haven – “like the FBI in the US” – through which hacking suspicions, among other concerns, are investigated and dealt with accordingly.

For Meta-GCC’s AlMheiri, the UAE ecosystem allows private players to be “part of the process,” with authorities, such as the UAE Cyber-security Council and the Ministry of Interior, in securing community digital safety. Consequently, the US company implemented measures against “hard drugs” messages discovered in WhatsApp. This January 2026, the Child Safety Law was passed.

Consul General Raines cited the crucial “increased cooperation on cyber-security” between the US and the UAE, by way of the 2025 “Memorandum of Understanding between the US and the UAE Cyber-Security Council.”

From the interview, Raines mentioned the “very, very strong economic relationship” between the US and the UAE at $34 billion a year of exports in favour of the US. The UAE is host to 1,500 “biggest and most important American companies.”

“But, all that, that relationship depends on the foundation of security and most especially cyber-security. The cyber-security partnership kind of steps with them, both in the private sector and the government realm as the UAE is rapidly moving into digital transformation. US is being there as a partner as well to help build up that cyber-security,” Raines added.