The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is building the National Telecom Security Operations and Threat Intelligence Centre (nTSOC) to protect the country’s essential telecom infrastructure and to assist in the national fight against cyber security threats. PTA has already formed the sector-specific National Telecom Computer Emergency Readiness Team (nTCERT) for cyber security and threat intelligence collaboration with the industry in 2020. In early 2021, a web portal was created for two-way communication with the industry and to automate the CERT processes.
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To efficiently detect assaults targeting the telecom sector, nTSOC and nTCERT will work together to deliver integrated security awareness, sophisticated threat intelligence, and 24/7 monitoring of the telecom cyber threat landscape. This will also make real-time collaboration with the industry easier for proactive and fast countermeasures on significant security alerts, incident remediation, and overall cyber security posture enhancement.
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PTA, on the other hand, has created a nTSOC consultation document and begun communicating with local and international parties. The regulator’s discussions with local vendors are focused on purchasing native and homegrown nTSOC solutions. Sector-specific unified Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR), incident management, case management, and unified cyber threat information are among the features included in the solution. According to the PTA, the tendering procedure for establishing nTSOC is also nearing completion.
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All licensees now have secure access to the nTCERT platform, according to the telecom regulator. The nTCERT platform is now being used by several telecom operators for threat intelligence information exchange, security preparation, and compliance. On the current cyber threats and vulnerabilities, PTA’s cyber security team issued around 127 security advisories and more than 100 security alerts to telecom operators.