𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗧 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴

𝗟𝗮𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗲, 𝗣𝗮𝗸𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻 – The National Cyber Emergency Response Team (National CERT) of Pakistan participated in a high-level panel discussion titled “Human Firewall – The First Line of Defence,” hosted by The Bank of Punjab, bringing together cybersecurity professionals, banking leaders, and technology experts to discuss the evolving threat landscape impacting the financial sector.
Representing National CERT, Ms. Adeela Waqar, Director Labs, shared in-depth insights on emerging banking threat vectors, including advanced phishing campaigns, targeted attacks on frontline bank personnel, and the increasing exploitation of AI-powered tools by threat actors. She highlighted how social engineering attacks are becoming more sophisticated, making employee awareness and continuous training more critical than ever.
Ms. Waqar also underscored the growing challenges around customer data protection, especially as Pakistan’s financial sector undergoes rapid digital transformation. She discussed the importance of integrating cybersecurity into the core of organisational strategy—strengthening Business-IT-Security alignment to ensure a unified defence posture across institutions.
National CERT reaffirmed its commitment to enabling a safer digital ecosystem by supporting financial institutions with timely threat intelligence, awareness initiatives, and capacity-building efforts to enhance Pakistan’s overall cybersecurity resilience.