الشبكة اليمنية للعلوم والبيئة (يمن ساينس) موقع يهتم بأخبار العلوم والتكنولوجيا والصحة والبيئة والسكان
مقالات مشابهة
By Abdulrahman Abotaleb
While global attention on Yemen remains fixed on its humanitarian disaster and political deadlock, a quieter crisis has been unfolding, one that threatens to undermine humanitarian operations, civic life, and digital access: the collapse of Yemen’s cyber infrastructure.
In July and August 2025, Yemen experienced a wave of cyberattacks targeting its telecommunications systems, government websites, water infrastructure, and financial institutions. The group behind the attack, calling itself S4uD1Pwnz, infiltrated national DNS servers, disrupted fixed-line and mobile internet, and reportedly accessed industrial control systems (SCADA) used to manage water supply networks.
The scale of the breach was unprecedented. Yet there has been no official response, no investigation, and no technical assessment made public. In fact, the silence from both local authorities and international stakeholders has been as concerning as the attack itself.
A Fragile Digital Landscape
The cyberattacks did not come out of nowhere. Yemen’s digital infrastructure has long been among the most vulnerable in the world. The country’s only fixed-line internet provider, YemenNet, is controlled by de facto authorities in Sana’a. Years of conflict and economic blockade have prevented equipment upgrades and blocked access to modern cloud-based services. Many systems rely on outdated, unpatched software, and Yemen lacks a national cybersecurity strategy, a computer emergency response team (CERT), or an independent regulatory body.
Not to mention the direct targeting of civilian infrastructure, including telecom facilities, by airstrikes and armed groups. According to a 2022 report by SAM for Rights and Liberties, more than 1,100 telecommunications sites were directly targeted by over 2,760 airstrikes, resulting in the full or partial destruction of 862 facilities. Repeated sabotage of fiber-optic cables also caused prolonged internet blackouts across several regions. These attacks inflicted an estimated $6.45 billion in economic losses, affecting over 14 million users, and disrupting connectivity for 850,000 students and researchers.
In this environment, a single point of failure can disable access to information, humanitarian services, digital remittances, or online education, especially as large parts of the population depend on the internet to survive amidst conflict and displacement.
Not Just a Technical Failure
What happened recently in Yemen is not merely a technical incident. It’s a governance failure, and a dangerous precedent for other fragile states. Yemen’s war economy and fragmented administration have left it without institutional safeguards. The country’s digital collapse reflects the same vulnerabilities that have plagued its health, energy, and food systems: hyper-centralization, lack of transparency, and absence of coordinated response.
When cyberattacks target essential infrastructure in a conflict zone, especially one experiencing mass displacement and humanitarian need, they should be seen as attacks on civilian life. Yet unlike physical bombings, cyber incidents often go unrecorded, uninvestigated, and unpunished.
A Global Pattern with Local Costs
The Middle East has become a testing ground for cyberwarfare. In recent years, Iran’s nuclear facilities, Saudi’s Aramco network, and Lebanon’s banking sector have all faced digital intrusions. But Yemen’s case is unique: it is digitally besieged without the tools to defend itself. There is no capacity to detect, attribute, or respond to threats. And the country’s isolation from the global digital economy, due to both war and sanctions, makes recovery even harder. Without urgent international support, Yemen may become the first country to experience a full-scale digital collapse, with consequences for humanitarian access, civil rights, and digital sovereignty.
What Needs to Happen
Internet access and cybersecurity in Yemen can no longer be treated as an afterthought. It must become part of the peacebuilding agenda, the humanitarian response toolkit, and the global digital rights conversation.
The international community—especially the UN, EU, and digital rights organizations—should:
• Advocate for the neutrality of the internet and telecommunications sector: Call on all parties to the conflict to refrain from weaponizing, disrupting, or manipulating digital infrastructure, whether directly or indirectly, as part of military or political strategy.
•Support decentralized infrastructure: Encourage diverse internet providers and community-led networks to reduce dependency on centralized systems.
•Fund capacity-building: Invest in training Yemen’s youth and technical professionals in cybersecurity and internet governance.
•Lift digital embargo barriers: Allow humanitarian exceptions for importing routers, servers, and cloud access tools.
•Integrate cybersecurity into humanitarian operations: Ensure aid agencies and local NGOs have secure digital communication and data protection protocols.
•Treat cyberattacks in conflict zones as violations of international humanitarian law, just like attacks on hospitals or water systems.
A Lifeline Under Siege
In a country where roads are blocked, banks are offline, and electricity is scarce, the internet has become a lifeline. It is where people access humanitarian assistance, transfer money, access education, and stay connected with the outside world. To leave Yemen’s digital infrastructure undefended is to leave its people further disconnected, disempowered, and endangered.
The cyberattacks of 2025 should serve as a wake-up call, not only for Yemen but for all countries facing fragility and conflict. The war won’t only be fought on land, sea, or air, it will be waged in servers, code, and silent blackouts. If we are serious about digital inclusion, peacebuilding, and human security, then cybersecurity must be treated not as a luxury but as a humanitarian imperative.
