The Information Security Conference 2024, held on July 25th in Karachi, Pakistan, brought together a diverse group of cybersecurity experts, professionals, and enthusiasts to address the pressing concerns of data theft, phishing, malware, hacking, and prevention strategies.
This signature event by Total Communications provided a platform for knowledge sharing, networking, and collaboration, offering insights into the emerging threat landscape through the participation of industry stakeholders and seasoned experts.
Chief guest at the event, Dr. Haider Abbas, DG National CERT announced the transformation of National CERT into the National Cyber Security Authority of Pakistan, in FY25.
He also said NCERT is establishing a lab which will ensure that organizations are deploying fool-proof security hardware and software and the infrastructure is having passed all security clearance and checks from the lab before its deployment in the country. He said Pakistan is ranked 79th in the global cyber security measures at present. “We have taken initiatives to improve the ranking to 50th position”.
Other notable sessions held at the event included, Shaukat Bizinjo, AD – Digital Financial Services Group, State Bank of Pakistan, Zohaib Khan, Chairman P@SHA, and Imran Batada, IoBM.
The sessions with leading info-sec experts from the local and regional ecosystem included:
- Achieving Essential Cyber Hygiene with Zero Trust: Ahrar Naqvi, CEO Ebryx
- The 2024 Threat Landscape: Faiz Ahmad Shuja, Chairman Rewterz
- Fireside Chat on API Security: Asher Faisel Khan, CEO Commtel & Muhammad Ali Manzer, CISO Bank of Punjab
- Presentation by GBM Pakistan
- Modern Cyber Warfare – The AI Factor: Moderated by Hussein Hassanali, with panelists CISOs Faysal Bank, Engro Corp., and representation from PwC, HBL and K-Electric.
- New Approach to the New Norm of Cloud: Moderated by Jawad Khalid Mirza, with panelists from Cisco Pakistan, Jazz, CISO Meezan Bank, and global representation from Palo Alto Networks and ForcePoint
- Future-Proof Your NG-SOC: LogRhythm
- Data Security Everywhere: ForcePoint
Speaking at the event, Asif Meenai, Chief Information Security Officer – HBL, said:
“Treating cyber risk apart from other business risks renders it overly technical, mysterious, and separate. Organizations need broader, deeper, more dynamic, and holistic risk management approaches. The competitive, technological, and regulatory environments demand it, as do clients, suppliers, investors and other stakeholders. Alignment of business and cyber strategies, integration of business processes and cyber controls and linkages between business outcomes and cyber analytics are essential elements of a holistic approach towards cybersecurity.”
The event sponsors included HBL as Exclusive Sponsor, whereas Gold Sponsors included S2 and LogRhythm, Commtel, Rewterz, SIRP, Forcepoint, GBM and IBM, InfoTel Pakistan, and Silver Sponsors including Trillium Information Security Systems, Tech6 and Ebryx. Exhibitors at the event included Softech Microsystems, Global Risk Compliance and Secure Beans.
