We Stopped Indian Hackers in Cyberspace. SBP’s ‘Cyber Shield’ Will Stop Them in Our Banks

When we think of national sovereignty, we instinctively picture soldiers on the Line of Control or jets scrambling at the first sign of intrusion. But ask yourself this: is our nation truly secure if our borders are ironclad while our digital vaults remain made of glass?

As a cyber security specialist who has monitored the shifting tides of digital warfare in South Asia, I can tell you that the frontlines have moved. The next war will not just attempt to breach our soil; it will attempt to bankrupt our ledger.

We are not strangers to this asymmetric warfare. We know well that our eastern neighbor has designated cyberspace as a primary domain of conflict. We have watched Indian state-sponsored hackers attempt, time and again, to penetrate our critical infrastructure. We have watched them deploy malware and coordinated denial-of-service attacks, aiming to paralyze our networks. And, significantly, we have watched them fail.

Our defensive capabilities are not theoretical; they are battle-proven. We need only look back to Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos in May 2025. While the world focused on the dogfights in the sky, a silent, decisive victory was won in the ether: Pakistan effectively jammed and neutralized the Indian Air Force’s command and control links. We blinded their digital eyes. That day proved that we possess the technical acumen to protect our space against a sophisticated adversary.

However, stopping an IAF intrusion is different from securing millions of daily financial transactions. While our military cyber defense is formidable, the commercial banking sector has expanded faster than its armor. Digital banking in Pakistan has exploded, but cybersecurity capabilities have struggled to keep pace.

It is into this gap that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has stepped with its new “Cyber Shield” strategy. This is not merely a policy document; it is a critical modernization of our financial defense architecture, mapped out to 2030.

The vulnerabilities are real, and as an expert, I see them clearly. Many of our financial institutions are grappling with outdated legacy systems that were never designed for the 24/7 exposure of the internet. Even more concerning is the blind reliance on third-party service providers—specifically foreign vendors. When a Pakistani bank outsources its cloud storage or security protocols to a foreign entity outside the SBP’s regulatory scope, we introduce a supply-chain risk that no amount of local firewalling can fix. We effectively hand the keys of our economy to entities we cannot police.

The “Cyber Shield” initiative correctly identifies these fractures. By mandating a framework that forces banks to move beyond simple prevention and focus on “resilience”—the ability to take a punch and keep standing—the SBP is enforcing a necessary discipline. The strategy’s focus on five key pillars, including stricter governance and enhanced collaboration, is the roadmap we need.

But a roadmap is useless without drivers. The SBP report rightly highlights a severe shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals in Pakistan. We have the raw talent—our youth are brilliant coders—but we lack the institutional pipeline to turn them into cyber-defense operators. We cannot effectively stop Indian cyber-aggression or criminal syndicates if our best defenders are exported to Dubai or Silicon Valley. Workforce development must be treated as a national emergency.

We must also break the silos. In the military, intelligence is shared instantly. In banking, however, institutions often hoard information about cyber threats to protect their reputations. This must end. The “Cyber Shield” push for threat intelligence sharing is vital. If one bank sees a specific signature of an Indian intrusion attempt, every other bank in Pakistan should be immunized against it within minutes.

The digital innovation in Pakistan is inspiring; it is bringing financial inclusion to millions. But innovation without security is fragile. The enemy knows that disturbing our financial stability is just as damaging as a kinetic strike.

We successfully jammed the enemy in the skies during Bunyan-um-Marsoos because we were vigilant, prepared, and technically superior. We must now bring that same spirit to our financial centers. The State Bank has drawn the blueprints with Cyber Shield. Now, it is up to the banking sector to build the fortress.