The Pakistan Computer Emergency Response Team (PKCERT) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with global cybersecurity company Kaspersky to enhance cybersecurity in Pakistan through collaboration.

PKCERT is a federal government entity responsible for protecting Pakistan’s digital assets, sensitive information, and critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, cyberterrorism, and cyber espionage.

A joint press release issued on Monday said that the agreement marked a major step toward enhancing Pakistan’s national cybersecurity posture through collaboration in threat detection, mitigation, and prevention.

“The partnership between PKCERT and Kaspersky focuses on strengthening the country’s cyber resilience through a series of coordinated efforts. These include extensive training and awareness programs designed to enhance operational readiness across all levels of government, industry, academia, and civil society,” the statement said.

It added that the collaboration also focused on capacity development to cultivate a skilled cybersecurity workforce aligned with both national and international standards.

“Additionally, the two organisations will ensure the timely dissemination of actionable cyber threat intelligence to relevant stakeholders across Pakistan,” it said.

Under the MoU, the statement added, the organisations will cooperate across a wide range of cybersecurity areas, “including legislative and regulatory issues, incident detection and response, prevention and mitigation strategies, cybersecurity education, research and development, and professional exchanges”.

“The two organisations will exchange relevant technical information, threat intelligence, and data feeds related to cyber threats and cyberattacks affecting citizens, businesses, and government institutions in Pakistan,” it said.

According to the press release, the MoU was signed by Dr Haider Abbas, the director general of PKCERT, and Rashed Al Momani, general manager for the Middle East and Pakistan at Kaspersky. It was signed in the presence of Kaspersky CEO Eugene Kaspersky and IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja.

“Information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a vital role in socio-economic development of a country; however, they have also introduced new challenges such as cyber espionage, hacktivism, ransomware, data breaches, identity theft, attacks on critical infrastructure, financial and supply chain disruptions, and disinformation campaigns,“ the statement quoted Abbas as saying.

“Our collaboration with Kaspersky, a global leader with expertise in these domains, represents another important step toward strengthening national cybersecurity,” he added.

“Safeguarding digital development requires robust cybersecurity, founded on deep and continuous partnerships between public authorities and private companies. Kaspersky has a long and fruitful history of working with global and regional organisations such as Interpol and Afripol, as well as local computer emergency response teams around the world,“ Al Momani said.

“We highly value this cooperation with PKCERT as an important step in consolidating Pakistan’s secure digital transformation for the entire nation,” he added.