Pakistan, May 30 -- By the time the National Cyber Crime Investigation acknowledged that over 180 million login credentials had been compromised in one of the largest data breaches in Pakistan's history, the digital bloodbath had already spilt across the dark web. However, the state's response to a systemic collapse-a calamity years, even decades, in the making-has been a deafening silence laced with shrugs.

The numbers alone are staggering. Official statements confirm the breach includes passwords and login credentials for platforms such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, with Pakistani users as primary targets. But this is merely the tip of a colossal iceberg. If 180 million credentials were exposed, even factoring in duplicates and d...