Pakistan’s New Cyber Security Policy

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has announced that a new national cyber security policy and the  Pakistan national cyber security agency has been approved. 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.

This a delicate time for Pakistan, which recently accused India of using Israeli Pegasus spyware to spy on Prime Minister Imran Khan, and has designated cyber attacks on any Pakistani institution as an attack on national sovereignty.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said the policy has been introduced keeping in view the enhanced significance of the cyber regime. He said Prime Minister Imran Kahn has asked that a “threats assessment committee” be formed to decide whether or not security be provided to government ministers and other important figures.

Pakistan’s new cyber security policy will include a new governance and institutional framework for a ‘secure cyber ecosystem’, along with computer emergency response teams (CERTs) and security operations centres (SOCs) at national, sector, and institutional levels. The policy also calls for new information-sharing mechanisms, along with skills development and training programs and public awareness campaigns.

The country’s current cyber law, the ‘Prevention of Electronic Crime Act’ (PECA), is poorly implemented, according to ethical hacker and security analyst Rafay Baloch. “To quote a few examples, the federal government has yet to designate a digital forensics laboratory to provide expert opinion to the court independent of the investigative agency which is mandated by the section 40 of PECA,” he told reporters. Baloch says that the new policy should improve Pakistan’s cybersecurity, in particular by harmonising practices across different bodies. He also calls for the government to develop an institutional framework consisting of dual civil-military agencies:

According to the new national policy, a cyber attack on any institution of Pakistan will be considered an act of aggression against national sovereignty and all necessary and retaliatory steps would be taken. The committee will implement the policy at the national level, determine a strategy in a timely manner and take timely action. The committee comprises the secretaries and senior officers of 13 different departments/organisations.

Currently Pakistan has been ranked seventh worst cyber secure state in the world by the Global Strategies Index and the Global Security Index 2018 report.

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