Cyber Attacks and the New Security Reality for Pakistan
By Aliya Agha
There was a time when war announced itself with the roar of fighter jets and the rumble of tanks. Today, it can begin with a mere flicker on a television screen or a hostile message crawling across a nation’s broadcast network.
In recent days, Pakistani news channels were reportedly disrupted by cyber intrusions that briefly replaced programming with anti-state messaging. Around the same period, Iranian media platforms, including state-linked outlets, faced significant digital interference. All this unfolded against a backdrop of heightened regional tension involving Iran, Israel and the United States.
The question is not merely who did it.
Because what we are witnessing is not an isolated incident. It is the normalization of cyber space as a fully fledged battlespace in South Asia, West Asia and the broader Middle East, domains where disruption and psychological pressure now travel at the speed of light.
Why Media Is the First Casualty
When television feeds are interrupted, it feels very intimate.
Since media organisations are high-visibility nodes in the information ecosystem, a hacked broadcast sends a message to the entire nation of its vulnerability.
In modern conflict game, the goal is not always destruction but to destabilize the national institutions and trust. The panic is no less than ground strike screams.
The satellite infrastructure that carries these broadcasts, such as Pakistan’s PAKSAT-1R, is often presumed to be the target. The experts say that direct satellite compromise is technically complex and rare. More often, intrusions occur on the ground at more accessible entry points, uplink stations or poorly segmented IT networks. Experts explain that most global cases of broadcast “hacks” originate from these terrestrial vulnerabilities rather than from satellites in orbit. The distinction is critical but frequently misunderstood in public discourse.
The Regional Chessboard
To understand Pakistan’s exposure, one must situate it within the broader regional chessboard.
The regional context further heightens concern. Iran has long been both a target and practitioner in cyber operations, Israel is widely regarded as possessing advanced offensive cyber capabilities, and India has steadily integrated digital strategy into its national security doctrine. Pakistan, situated at a strategic and digital crossroads, inevitably operates within this crowded cyber environment.
In periods of kinetic escalation, missile strikes and border clashes, cyber activity typically spikes. Analysts call this “cyber signaling” which means actions designed less to cripple and interestingly, more to communicate capability or warning.
When former U.S. President Donald Trump warns Iran that “they won’t even know what’s coming,” such rhetoric heightens alert levels across the region. Even if not directly linked to specific cyber events, the psychological climate shifts. As the battlespace increasingly extends into the unseen and the unknown, the cumulative effect is a heightened sense of digital volatility across the region.
Hybrid Warfare’s Psychological Edge
What distinguishes this era is not simply the existence of cyber attacks, they have been around for decades, but their integration into broader strategic campaigns.
Modern conflict has become hybrid creature attacking through conventional force, economic pressure, information manipulation and now cyber operations. Today’s headlines in Pakistan reporting such cyber intrusions have inevitably fueled speculation within a society that is rapidly digitizing and increasingly exposed to the vulnerabilities of the digital age.
Progress and Gaps
Pakistan has taken several notable steps to strengthen its cyber defenses, including the establishment of the National Cyber Security Policy, the expansion of capabilities within the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, enhanced monitoring by intelligence agencies, and growing collaboration with the banking sector on cyber resilience. However, cybersecurity experts continue to highlight persistent structural gaps. These include a shortage of highly skilled cyber professionals, fragmented institutional coordination, inconsistent cyber hygiene across government departments and underinvestment in critical infrastructure protection. As a result, experts believe that Pakistan’s defensive posture in many areas still struggles to keep pace with the speed and sophistication of emerging cyber threats.
Pakistan’s Strategic Imperative
If cyberspace is now a permanent battlespace, Pakistan must choose between remaining reactive or adopting a proactive cyber resilience strategy. This requires strengthening ground infrastructure, conducting regular security testing, expanding cyber talent, improving public-private intelligence sharing, and integrating cyber planning into national security. Above all, cyber defense must be treated not as an IT function but as a core national security priority.
Invisible Frontlines of the Future
In the digital age, war has not disappeared. It has evolved and as long as rivalries persist, cyber operations will accompany them.
For Pakistan, the message from cybersecurity and counter-terrorism experts is increasingly clear:
The next major security challenge may not cross the border, it may arrive through the network.
