Islamabad, Pakistan witnessed the participation of National Cyber Emergency Response Team National CERT in the third iteration of the extended workshop on cyber resilience, AI and digital transformation training for officers of federal ministries. The activity was organized in collaboration with National Information Technology Board NITB and Ministry of IT and Telecommunication MoITT as part of the Digital Nation Pakistan initiative. The series aims to enhance the readiness of government institutions by equipping their officers with practical understanding, structured methodologies and emerging practices relating to secure technology adoption. National CERT specialists led three dedicated training sessions to support ministries in strengthening their internal cybersecurity capacities.
The first session delivered by Syed Imran Haider, Assistant Director Trainings, explored responsible AI adoption and the relationship between governance structures and secure deployment. The module covered ethical considerations, data handling requirements, protection mechanisms and the importance of integrating mandatory safeguards at early stages of AI system development. Participants engaged with content focused on building AI solutions that align with national standards for safe implementation. This session served as an introduction to the role of governance in ensuring that automation and intelligence driven tools remain transparent, accountable and suitable for use across public sector operations.
A second session led by Syed Zain ul Hassan, Deputy Director Red Team, focused on the operational side of cybersecurity and examined how attacks unfold in real environments. The segment titled Inside a Hacker’s Mind From Spoofing to Data Breaches How Cyber Attacks Really Work offered an immersive explanation of threat actor methods and the patterns commonly used to compromise systems. Officers were guided through practical interpretations of spoofing attempts, lateral movement, data exploitation and the various strategies that cyber attackers rely on. The session emphasized how understanding attacker behavior strengthens defensive capability across ministries that manage sensitive information and critical services.
The final training of the workshop was delivered by Masooma Ali, Technology Engineer at National CERT. Her discussion centered on strengthening cyber resilience through security by design. The presentation covered the importance of embedding protective controls across the entire technology lifecycle, beginning with architecture and extending into system development, internal review, deployment activities and continuous maintenance. The emphasis on design level protection offered officials insights into creating long term security structures that reduce vulnerabilities before systems are introduced into operational environments.
National CERT reaffirmed its commitment to supporting national institutions in their efforts to improve digital readiness. The organization continues to lead capacity building initiatives designed to enhance Pakistan’s cybersecurity posture and support safe digital transformation across public sector entities. Through multi agency collaboration and training focused on technical understanding, governance frameworks and modern security practices, National CERT aims to help ministries adopt secure technologies that meet the growing demands of Pakistan’s digital ecosystem.
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