President Dr. Arif Alvi urged Collaboration with Technology firms and R&D organizations to build capabilities in cyber security vital to protect national data

President Dr. Arif Alvi on Tuesday said amid the global challenges of cyber-attacks, it was important for Pakistan to build national capabilities in cyber security to protect its important systems and data.

Addressing at the inaugural session of the 2nd annual International Conference of Cyber Warfare and Security, the president said preparing indigenous professionals and solutions was vital to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks, particularly against the country’s defense, energy, and financial infrastructures. Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Mr. Nong Rong, PAF Director General C4I Air Vice Marshal Abbas Ghumman, Director National Centre for Cyber Security (NCCS) Dr. Kashif Kifayat, Vice Chancellor Air University Air Marshal (retd) Javaid Ahmed, Executive Director Higher Education Commission Dr. Shaista Sohail, CEO Huawei Pakistan Mr. Mark Meng, Chief Security Officer Huawei Pakistan Mr. Wang Wenlong attended Inaugural session。
President Alvi said the attainment of strong capacity in cyber security was significant for both defensive and offensive strategies as the world witnessed rapid technological advancement.

He said a national vision of a secure and robust digital ecosystem would lead the country to socio-economic development.

He mentioned that cyberspace had recently attracted the attention of many developed and developing countries with reports of government websites being hacked and sensitive data stolen by foreign groups. To create cyber security awareness, there was a dire need for Pakistan to produce graduates and human resources capable of handling the challenges of cyber security.

The two-day event organized by the National Centre of Cyber Security, Air University discussed ways to build to strengthen cyber security and neutralize advanced threats. Some experts mentioned Pakistan government can learn from other countries’ successful Cloud project cases and encourage technical firms and R&D organizations to develop the latest Cloud technology to speed up knowledge and experience sharing and transfer.

As a partner of the 2nd annual International Conference of Cyber Warfare and Security, Huawei Pakistan set up an industry exhibit booth to show the latest products, and Chief Security Officer Mr. Wang Wenlong made a speech about the cyber security cooperation.

He said as cyber security became fundamental to business, Huawei put cyber security and user privacy protection as the highest priority of the company. Every year, Huawei invests 20 billion US dollars to improve product design, development, and delivery processes and was building a cooperative digital ecosystem in 170 countries with a comprehensive global security system.

He mentioned Huawei has a solid track record in security and a comprehensive global cyber security insurance system. Huawei has always stood by its customers to guarantee network security, reliability, and stability. Huawei honors this commitment no matter what happened. All the people are living in a world in the middle of a transition to the new digital era. In order to achieve true digital transformation underpinned by cybersecurity and embrace a trusted digital future and leave no one behind, Huawei believes in building an open, transparent, and collaborative digital eco-system where cyber security is a shared responsibility of this ecosystem because cyber security can never be addressed by one person, one organization or one nation alone.

To ensure that all network elements and services can reach the same levels of security, Huawei is calling businesses, governments, and industry organizations to jointly develop Pakistan’s unified security standards.

After the inauguration, the president, along with Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu, visited the industry exhibit and evinced keen interest in the products including cyber forensic toolkits, secure communication framework, remote monitoring via sensors, and internet security and privacy labs