The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) of the Kingdom of Bahrain and SandboxAQ, a global leader in AI-driven cybersecurity and cryptographic management, have announced a landmark partnership to establish a nationwide cybersecurity modernisation framework. The collaboration represents one of the world’s first large-scale initiatives to transition towards a quantum-safe economy, addressing emerging threats from quantum computing and advanced cyber attacks.
As a founding member of the UNICC AI Hub on Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), SandboxAQ will assist Bahrain in securing sovereign data, critical infrastructure, and sensitive government and private-sector systems. The partnership aims to protect against rapidly evolving cyber, cryptographic, and quantum computing threats, ensuring Bahrain’s digital assets remain resilient in the face of future technological developments.
The announcement comes amid growing global concerns about “Q-Day,” the point at which cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) will be capable of breaking today’s widely used encryption. While experts project that CRQCs could be viable as early as 2029, the risk is already present through “harvest-now, decrypt-later” attacks. Such attacks involve stealing encrypted data today with the intention of decrypting it once quantum capabilities advance. For governments, this threat encompasses classified communications, diplomatic cables, defence information, national identity records, and decades of sensitive archives.
Under the partnership, Bahrain will deploy SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard platform, an AI-powered cybersecurity solution designed to enable the safe, large-scale deployment of AI agents while modernising defences for the post-quantum era. The platform provides comprehensive visibility, assessment, and remediation of critical vulnerabilities resulting from weak encryption and the proliferation of AI agents and non-human identities (NHIs). The deployment will cover more than 60 ministry environments across the Kingdom, requiring the platform to manage cryptographic security on a national scale.
His Excellency Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, CEO of the NCSC, said, “This partnership with SandboxAQ marks a significant milestone in our mission to secure our sovereign data, intellectual property, and other digital assets from both internal and external cyber threats. SandboxAQ’s world-class technologies and expertise in AI-driven cybersecurity will help Bahrain protect its citizens, businesses, and government agencies and lay the foundation for a new era of security and economic growth in the Kingdom.”
Mohammed Aboul-Magd, Vice President of Product, Cybersecurity at SandboxAQ, added, “Bahrain is taking a bold and much-needed step by not only setting policy, but by operationalising the technology required to secure the Kingdom against rapidly advancing threats. Our partnership establishes a dynamic framework that allows the country to adapt quickly as new vulnerabilities emerge, ensuring the nation stays ahead of attackers in a world where cryptographic risks evolve by the day. We are honoured to support Shaikh Salman and the Government of Bahrain in implementing this forward-looking programme, which sets a new benchmark for cyber resilience across the region.”
The initiative forms a central pillar of Bahrain’s long-term cybersecurity strategy, reinforcing the Kingdom’s commitment to safeguarding national data, promoting economic resilience, and advancing secure digital transformation.
