Pakistan government approves new cybersecurity policy, cybercrime agency

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has announced that a new cybersecurity policy and accompanying cybersecurity agency has been approved for the South Asian nation.

The new policy aims to support both public and private institutions, including national information systems and critical infrastructure, replacing a system whereby government institutions have separate security operations.

It comes at a delicate time for Pakistan, which recently accused India of using the Israeli spyware Pegasus to spy on Prime Minister Imran Khan – and designates cyber-attacks on any Pakistani institution as an attack on national sovereignty.

“The IT ministry and all relevant public and private institutions will be provided all possible assistance and support to ensure that their data, services, ICT products and systems are in line with the requirements of cybersecurity,” said IT minister Syed Aminul Haq, as quoted in local press.

Pakistan’s new cybersecurity policy will include a new governance and institutional framework for a ‘secure cyber ecosystem’, along with computer emergency response teams (CERTs) and security operations centers (SOCs) at national, sector, and institutional levels.

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