Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has released its Cyber Security Annual Report for 2022 on the compliance of its Critical Telecom Data and Infrastructure Security Regulations (CTDISR).
The authority conducted validation audits of the top 15 telecom operators in the country, categorized on a number of factors, including their network size and license type.
The report is targeted to assess the nationwide Telecommunication Operators’ cyber security posture in line with the CTDISR regulation. This includes audit revalidations from both “large organizations” and “small organizations”.
The report offers an overall Cyber Security Index (CSI) of the telecom sector, as well as ranks telecom operators based on their level of compliance to 16 Security Domains comprised of 104 Security Controls outlined in CTDISR. The document also highlights strong and weak areas of the telecom sector and provides aggregated anonymized information about major cyber security incidents in the last year.
Jazz secures highest compliance percentage in Cat-I
In terms of the individual category, Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (PMCL) – Jazz secured the highest compliance percentage in Category-I, which includes all Cellular Mobile Operators and large fixed-line operators with multiple licenses, with Telenor Pakistan taking the second highest spot in the category.
RedTone tops compliance percentage list in Cat-II
Meanwhile, RedTone topped the compliance percentage list in Category-II , which includes medium to large operators/ISPs, followed by Multinet as the runners-up.
PTA instructs telecom operators to comply with CTDISR requirements
The PTA said in its report that it is imperative for all telecom operators to comply with the requirements of CTDISR to safeguard critical telecom data and infrastructure, as well as stay ahead of other sectors in providing a safe experience to telecom users while proactively countering the latest and advanced incoming cyber security challenges.
The report is based on the Cyber Security framework published by PTA in 2020 and 3rd party audits performed by the authority’s registered cybersecurity firms.
