Cyber Security Threat and Pakistan’s Preparedness: An Analysis of National Cyber Security Policy 2021

Abstract

The objective of this research is to evaluate Pakistan’s existing national cyber security policy in order to understand its context, effectiveness and readiness to deter cyber security challenges. As the world has become intensively connected and digitized through the internet or information technology, securing cyber space has become the biggest challenge, and has exposed the world to the existence of a novel, global threat. Since the threat to cyber security has no geographical boundaries and is beyond the traditional understanding of security, it is considered to be a paradigm shift in the area of security. The seriousness and enormity attached to cyber threats intrigued us into investigating the status of Pakistan in securing its cyber space and to analyse the National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP) that was developed by the government of Pakistan in 2021 to combat cyber threats from within and outside the country. Cyber security threats and Pakistan’s preparedness for them have also been analyzed in this research. This qualitative study intends to employ a qualitative technique for the collection of data, i.e., policy documentary analysis, to investigate the nature of cyber security policy