The National Cyber Security Center of the Kingdom of Bahrain and SandboxAQ announced a strategic partnership to establish a nationwide cybersecurity modernisation framework.

The partnership was revealed as one of the world’s first large-scale initiatives aimed at transitioning toward a quantum-safe economy. As part of the agreement, SandboxAQ will support Bahrain in securing sovereign data, critical infrastructure, and sensitive government and private-sector systems.

The announcement comes as governments globally prepare for “Q-Day.” This refers to the point when cryptographically relevant quantum computers could break widely used encryption. Experts have reported this could occur as early as 2029. However, the risk is already present due to “harvest-now, decrypt-later” attacks, where encrypted data is collected today for future decryption.

Under the partnership, Bahrain will deploy SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard platform. The AI-powered cybersecurity solution is designed to modernise defenses for the post-quantum era. It enables visibility, assessment, and remediation of vulnerabilities caused by weak encryption and the growing use of AI agents and non-human identities.

The deployment will span more than 60 ministry environments across the Kingdom. As a founding member of the UNICC AI Hub on Post-Quantum Cryptography, SandboxAQ will also support efforts to strengthen cryptographic resilience at scale.

Key elements of the initiative include:

• Deployment of SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard platform across ministries
• Protection of critical infrastructure and sensitive national data
• Preparation for post-quantum and AI-driven cyber threats

His Excellency Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain’s National Cyber Security Center, stated that the partnership will help protect digital assets and support long-term security and economic growth.

Meanwhile, SandboxAQ’s Vice President of Product, Cybersecurity, Mohammed Aboul-Magd, said Bahrain is taking a proactive approach by operationalising advanced technologies to stay ahead of evolving cyber and cryptographic risks.

The initiative was reported as a core pillar of Bahrain’s long-term cybersecurity strategy. It reinforces the Kingdom’s commitment to secure digital transformation, national data protection, and economic resilience, with SandboxAQ playing a central role in this effort.

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