ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for IT and Telecom Syed Aminul Haque on Thursday revealed that around 0.9 million cyber attacks take place daily.
Haque was speaking at a virtual inauguration of the Disaster Recovery Center (DRC), Lahore, for National Data Center (NDC) of the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC).
The new site is a full-fledged data center, which will not only work as backup to the existing data centre but will also provide enhanced capacity for provision of cloud-based services to the Government of Pakistan with advanced features and security.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by secretary IT and Telecom Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, MD NTC Brig Viqar Rashid Khan (retd), Huawei CEO Mark Meng, MD EBG Huawei GAO Weijie, and others.
Haque lauded the NTC management for completion of an important project of the DRC to strengthen the security and availability of government data.
Haque advised the MD NTC to start project for Karachi and Quetta data centers.
“It’s remarkable as I am briefed by the MD NTC, that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the NTC National Data Centre acted as the main platform for hosting all the systems/web/mobile applications developed for data acquisition and data analysis, which assisted the NCOC and other policy/decision makers,” the minister added.
Haque said that that this government entity has also managed to complete 100 percent Annual Development Plan (ADP) during the financial year 2019-2020, which is a record in the public sector.
The NTC is probably one of the few federal-level organisations who have recovered from a loss-making entity to a profitable and an efficient forward looking organisation.
Managing director NTC Viqar Rashid Khan said this is a historic occasion for the NTC to have achieved the milestone of establishing DRC in Lahore. This day is also important as the NTC has completed its 25 years’ journey.
The NTC has shown record growth in exchanges 225 percent, record expansion to new districts/cities 50 percent, record ADP completion in fiscal year 2016-2017 and 2019-2020 a 100 percent, subscribers’ growth 16 percent with broadband subscribers growth 115 percent.
Talking to the media after the ceremony, the IT minister said given development package of Rs1.1 trillion to Karachi is not a favour, adding that the people of Karachi will earn Rs3.3 trillion and return it to the government.
He further said that due to incompetence and political revenge, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is not working.
This development work should have been done by the provincial government, said the minister, adding that the green line will be operational by June 2021.
Karachi package seems to be being implemented. The K4 project will be completed in the next three years, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021