The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and SandboxAQ, a global leader in AI-driven cybersecurity and cryptographic management, announced a landmark partnership aimed at establishing a nationwide cybersecurity modernisation framework.

The partnership marks one of the world’s first large-scale commitments to transitioning towards a quantum-safe economy. As a founding member of the UNICC AI Hub on Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), SandboxAQ will support Bahrain in securing sovereign data, critical infrastructure and sensitive government and private-sector systems against rapidly evolving cyber, cryptographic, and quantum computing threats.

The announcement comes as governments worldwide prepare for "Q-Day", the point when cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) will be capable of breaking today’s widely used encryption. While experts now estimate CRQCs to be feasible by as early as 2029, the threat is already present through "harvest-now, decrypt-later" attacks, where adversaries steal encrypted data today with plans to decrypt it once quantum capabilities mature. For governments, this includes classified communications, diplomatic cables, defence data, national identity records and decades of sensitive archives.

Under this 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 and modernise defences for the post-quantum era. It provides complete visibility, assessment, and remediation of critical vulnerabilities stemming from weak encryption and the rapid proliferation of AI agents and non-human identities (NHIs). The deployment will span more than 60 distinct ministry environments across the Kingdom, requiring SandboxAQ’s platform to manage cryptographic security on a scale.

Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, CEO of the NCSC, said that the partnership with SandboxAQ is a crucial step in safeguarding Bahrain’s sovereign data, intellectual property, and other digital assets against internal and external cyber threats. He added that SandboxAQ’s advanced AI-driven cybersecurity technologies and expertise will help protect citizens, businesses, and government agencies and support a new era of security and economic growth in the Kingdom.

Mohammed Aboul-Magd, Vice President of Product, Cybersecurity at SandboxAQ, said that Bahrain is taking a significant step by not only establishing policy but also implementing the necessary technology to protect the Kingdom against rapidly evolving threats. He added that the partnership creates a framework that allows the country to respond quickly to new vulnerabilities, keeping it ahead of attackers.

This initiative forms a core pillar of Bahrain’s long-term cybersecurity strategy and reinforces the Kingdom’s commitment to safeguarding national data, promoting economic resilience and accelerating secure digital transformation.