ISLAMABAD: Pakistan faces serious cybersecurity challenges and should actively participate in international forums such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Information Security Conference that is held in Riyadh on September 9 and 10, a senior government functionary, who regularly deals with online security issues, told Arab News on Monday.

“The Ministry of Information Technology should keep an eye on events like these and send experts from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to them,” Abdul Rauf, additional director of FIA’s cybercrime wing, said.

He maintained that the country had no cybersecurity policy, adding that such forums could help local experts formulate one.

“Pakistan’s IT ministry has started working on cybersecurity policy that will be vetted by all stakeholders,” Rauf said. “We are lagging behind much of the world in the field of cybersecurity and a lot of work needs to be done. It is high time we started attending such knowledge-sharing conferences to benefit from international expertise in the area.”

The two-day MENA conference under the title “Cyberspace, the New Frontier: Deception, Orchestration and Black Holes” began in Riyadh on Monday. According to the organizers of the forum, the more people depend on digitally driven lifestyles the more they become vulnerable online. In this context, the event aims to discuss deception technology and how it has been changing the cybersecurity landscape.

The conference also seeks to focus on human capital and technological investments required by regional institutions to defend themselves successfully from cyberattacks. Other than that, the forum aspires to enhance connectivity and networking among senior regional cybersecurity professionals.