ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): The National Computer Emergency Response Team of Pakistan issued its first cyber threat warning on April 23, 2026.
The warning comes one day before Marqa-e-Haq marks its first anniversary, which celebrates the 2025 conflict. Officials believe this milestone will lead to coordinated cyber attacks that will target the digital assets of the nation.
NCERT issued an emergency alert that protects critical national infrastructure and government ministries from potential disruptions. Government departments currently face an increased risk of network breaches and data theft.
NCERT urges all ministries to improve their digital security measures, which they must implement without delay. IT teams need to update their operating systems, firewalls, and anti-malware tools with the latest security patches.
Departments must also conduct complete security assessments of their systems. Officials must watch systems in real time to detect any unusual behavior that might suggest a security breach.
Organizations must establish more stringent access restrictions throughout their operations to safeguard confidential information, according to the new advisory. Employees need to create unique passwords that must include complex elements and require multi-factor authentication for system access.
NCERT has identified a growing danger of phishing emails and social engineering attacks which hostiles use to attack organizations.
All staff members need to participate in mandatory training programs that teach them how to detect suspicious activities according to the organization. Ministries need to establish procedures for backing up essential information while organizing their storage systems to enable quick data recovery.
Earlier, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) warned the public about an increase in phishing scams that aim to get hold of personal information.
What is a phishing scam?
Phishing is a practice that consists of fraudulent emails, messages, or websites that deceive people into giving up their sensitive data, such as passwords, one-time passwords (OTPs), and bank account details.
PTA urged people to take precautions and not to click on links from untrusted sources. The authority laid down guidelines to verify the identity of the senders and never to disclose personal information to the “unknown” contacts.
Users have to immediately report the links that they suspect are dubious. The PTA also notified users that it would never reach out to them through calls or emails for personal data, thus categorizing such requests as scams.
In a post on social media, PTA advised that people should pass this message on to their friends and family to make them aware of the issue and consequently prevent them from becoming victims of online scams
