Millions of people in the UAE woke up on Monday unable to pay for a taxi, order food, or check their bank balance.
Iranian drone strikes had just hit Amazon Web Services data centres in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The damage knocked out banking apps, payment platforms, and delivery services that Gulf residents use every single day. For the more than 11 million expat workers living in the UAE, where foreigners make up nearly 89% of the population, the outage cut off access to their primary financial tools.
