US financial and technology companies are beefing up security measures and limiting the activity of their offices in parts of the Middle East, a day after Iran warned it could target economic centers linked to the United States during the ongoing regional conflict.Citibank asked employees to leave its regional headquarters in the Dubai International Financial Center immediately, according to the New York Times. An internal notice cited “increased security concerns” and advised workers to find “the nearest safe location away from the office.”Standard Chartered has also renewed the work from home advice issued earlier. The bank has a large regional center in Dubai.
In Qatar, HSBC temporarily closed all three of its banking branches. “The safety of our colleagues and customers remains our top priority,” the bank said in a statement.Technology companies have taken similar measures. According to the Economic Times, citing a Google executive, all employees across the region, except for critical employees responsible for maintaining the cloud infrastructure, have been transferred to mandatory work from home, which is ongoing.
The executive added that most global technology companies have moved regional employees to mandatory work-from-home arrangements until further notice. Iran warns American technology companies and banksThe steps follow Iran’s public warning that US technology companies and financial institutions could become targets.According to Al Jazeera, the Tasnim News Agency of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard published a list of offices and infrastructure run by major American technology companies that it claimed were linked to Israel and used for military purposes.The report described these sites as “Iran’s new targets.” The list includes cloud infrastructure and other facilities operated by Google, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle, it said.Iran also warned that it may target banks and economic centers linked to the United States and Israel. A spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbia headquarters said that the warning came in the wake of what Iran described as an attack on one of its banks. The spokesman said: “The enemy has left our hands open to target economic centers and banks affiliated with the United States and the Zionist entity in the region.”The official also warned civilians to stay away from such sites. “Residents of the area should not be within a one-kilometre radius of the banks.”