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Introduction & Objectives

The National Cyber Emergency Response Team of Pakistan (PKCERT) is a national government entity responsible for protecting the digital assets, sensitive information, and critical infrastructure of Pakistan from ever-increasing cyber-attacks, cyber terrorism, and cyber espionage. It is continuously ramping up its capacity to provide excellent services to the nation and all its stakeholders. Some of its major objectives are as follows:
  • Promote cybersecurity awareness:
    PKCERT is focused on raising awareness about cybersecurity among the public, government agencies, and the private sector through cybersecurity awareness campaigns, workshops, and training programs. Its goal is to educate people about cyber threats and suggest best practices that can be adopted to avoid this growing number of cyberattacks.
  • Research and development:
    PKCERT will play a pivotal role in establishing industry-academia linkage to promote applied research and development activities for identifying novel cyber-attacks and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). Further, it is focused on developing optimized and robust countermeasures to mitigate these threats before materialization.
  • Develop and implement cybersecurity policies:
    PKCERT will work closely with the government to develop and implement cybersecurity policies and guidelines. It will also provide technical expertise and advice to government agencies and private sector organizations to help them improve their cybersecurity posture.
  • Foster international cooperation:
    PKCERT will develop international cooperation by collaborating with other international CERTs and participating in various international cybersecurity initiatives. It will also share information and expertise with other countries to enhance global cybersecurity.
    In summary, PKCERT intends to protect the country's cyber infrastructure from cyber threats by detecting, preventing, and responding to cyber-attacks. It is also focused on promoting cybersecurity awareness, developing and implementing cybersecurity policies, conducting research and development activities, and fostering international cooperation to ensure the security of critical assets globally.

Our Vision

“The vision of PKCERT is to lead collaboration with all national CERTs and forge connections with international CERTs to ensure secure and resilient critical information systems of Pakistan for business continuity through vigilant, systematic detection and mitigation of current cyber threats as well as readiness for potential future vulnerabilities.”

Our Mission

PKCERT will direct its efforts to:

  • 01

  • Collaborate with national CERTs to ensure the security and resilience of Critical information infrastructure in Pakistan.

  • 02

  • Become an effective member and be recognized as Pakistan’s credible source of cyber security events, advisories, and cyber threats for all eminent global CERTs.

  • 03

  • Provide reliable information about emerging cyber threats and attacks to its constituents and stakeholders with a proactive approach regarding its mitigation and incident response.

  • 04

  • Provide a systematic and quick response including a forensic investigation of cyber security incidents within its constituency and support other national CERTs as well for incident management.

  • 05

  • Promote the adoption of global and national information and cyber security standards/practices regarding risk management, security evaluation, and audits for ensuring reasonable protection from emerging cyber threats.

  • 06

  • Build capacity and capability for cyber incident management in all respects to its constituents and stakeholders.

  • 07

  • Develop facilities to carry out advanced security services like active network monitoring, vulnerability analysis, and security testing.

Core Functions

PKCERT is a group of security experts responsible for detecting, preventing, and responding to cyber threats and attacks within Pakistan’s cyber ecosystem. Their main goal is to keep the digital infrastructure of the country safe and secure by minimizing the impact of cyber incidents on critical infrastructure, government entities, and citizens.
  • Policy Regulations and Standards
  • Risk Management
  • Audit & Compliance
  • Incident Management
  • Incident Response
  • Security Operations & Orchestration
  • Threat Detection
  • Statistics Analysis and reporting of malicious content, activities and alerts
  • Monitoring Cyber Security Hygiene
  • Vulnerability Catalogue and Risk Registers
  • Vulnerability Discovery Program
  • Red/Blue Team Operations
  • Capture the Flag (CTF) Management
  • Liaison with National/ International Agencies
  • Partnerships and Collaborations
  • Coordination with sectoral and international CERTs
  • Training & Awareness Programs
  • Capacity Development for skilled human resource
  • Advisories – Information Dissemination
  • Digital Forensics
  • Screening & Evaluation
  • Hardware/ Software Assessment (Whitelisting)
PKCERT aims to play a critical role in protecting a nation's critical infrastructure, government entities, and citizens from cyber threats, thereby ensuring that the nation is well-aware and prepared to respond to and recover from cyber incidents.