ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister’s Office has directed the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication to constitute a high-level committee of experts headed by the federal minister for information to analyze the “cyber threats and challenges” to state institutions and submit its recommendations to proceed further in the matter.
The development comes in response to President Dr Arif Alvi’s letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, where the president had observed that seeking the opinion of decision-makers, politicians and strategists about the ‘cyber power’, being the effective deployment of cyber capabilities by a state to achieve its national objectives”, was an important area where Pakistan needed to work hard to become a significant player.
The president had emphasised that it was important for Pakistan to deliberate on how to develop and leverage its policy by adopting a multifactorial holistic national approach to harness the cyber power with the objective to reduce the national attack surface and attaining effective reaction and defence capabilities against any possible intrusions capable of paralysing all institutions, utilities, defence, business, digital supply chain, finance, public services and information control and communication,
The president identified eight strategic areas which needed to be seriously deliberated upon as a national concern to safeguard the country against possible cyber threats and strengthen and enhance national cyber defences.
The committee would submit its recommendations to proceed further in the matter at the earliest opportunity
