Pakistan’s reliance on a small number of submarine cable landing stations and Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) is emerging as a major vulnerability, increasing the country’s exposure to large-scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
This concern has been highlighted in the ‘Guidelines for Mitigation of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks’ issued by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The report noted that although major telecom operators have implemented anti-DDoS measures, many of these systems are based on outdated technologies that are becoming less effective against increasingly sophisticated, multi-vector cyber threats.
It warned that the gap between current defence capabilities and evolving attack methods is widening, underscoring the urgent need to upgrade systems to ensure reliable and comprehensive protection across networks.
In response, the PTA has introduced detailed guidelines aimed at strengthening the country’s cybersecurity framework. These guidelines establish a unified national approach focused on prevention, detection, mitigation, and coordinated response among telecom operators, internet service providers (ISPs), and relevant government institutions.
The framework outlines clear operational and technical standards for licensees, defines roles and responsibilities for stakeholders such as PTA, nTCERT, and telecom operators, and sets out an implementation roadmap to ensure timely, consistent, and effective mitigation efforts.
The guidelines are aligned with international standards and best practices from organisations such as ENISA, GSMA, NIST, and IETF, while being tailored to Pakistan’s specific infrastructure and operational environment.
Key objectives include strengthening national resilience against DDoS attacks, creating a collaborative mitigation ecosystem, enabling real-time threat intelligence sharing, and maintaining operational readiness through regular testing and drills.
Globally, DDoS attack volumes have exceeded approximately 30 Tbps in 2025, driven by the rise of botnets, exploitation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, DDoS-as-a-Service platforms, and cloud-based amplification techniques.
The document also highlights the growing use of Over-the-Top (OTT) and Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, which require hybrid detection systems spanning backbone networks, ISP perimeters, and cloud infrastructure.
Under the new compliance requirements, licensees must implement effective DDoS detection and mitigation mechanisms for both incoming and outgoing traffic, either through in-house systems or upstream providers with verifiable oversight.
To reduce outbound risks, the guidelines mandate routing hygiene and anti-spoofing measures such as BCP-38, uRPF, MANRS principles, and ingress/egress filtering, along with securing customer premises equipment (CPE) in line with recognised security standards.
A multi-layered defence strategy is also required, including protections at network and transport layers, use of rate limiting, traffic thresholds, and deployment of mitigation tools like BGP FlowSpec, Remote Triggered Black Hole (RTBH) filtering, and Access Control Lists (ACLs).
The PTA further stressed the importance of real-time threat intelligence sharing, adoption of advanced technologies including AI-driven detection systems, and stronger collaboration between telecom operators and both national and international cybersecurity partners, alongside continuous monitoring and rapid incident response capabilities.
