Bangladesh joins ICEA for stronger cyber defence

Bangladesh has officially accepted the membership of International Cyber Expert Association (ICEA) as part of a multipronged initiative to enhance cybersecurity in the country’s financial sector.

This move will enable Bangladesh to receive early warning signal of any cyberattack from inside and outside the country.

Furthermore, sensors have been installed at 15 important internet connection sites to prevent cyberattacks.

Also, a world-class cybersecurity agency will be formed to ensure security round the clock. Its office will be at Kaliakair in Gazipur.

All these initiatives have been taken nationally and will be implemented jointly by the central bank and commercial banks.

In addition, banks are installing anti-malware software to strengthen firewalls to ensure the security of digital transaction software.

A cyber week will also be observed in October at the initiative of the government to create awareness among the people about cybersecurity.

A Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT) was already formed earlier under the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) to respond to any cyberattack centrally.

Now, every commercial bank and the central bank also have their own cyber incident response team.

These teams monitor online systems at banks round the clock. Initiatives have been taken to boost capacity of these teams.

However, if case of any cyberattack, CIRT should be notified immediately.

Digital infrastructure in the country is being developed according to the model of Bangladesh National Digital Architecture (BNDA) initiated by the government.

Under this, the entire financial sector will be digitized. Security will also be increased for this. These steps have been taken as part of it.

Tareq M Barkatullah, Director of Bangladesh Computer Council and project director of CIRT said, banks have been advised to strengthen their firewall. If firewall is strong, systems become less vulnerable to a break-in.

According to information technology experts, just as anti-malware software is being updated frequently, so are cybercriminals busy creating new malware.

Therefore, both hardware and software need to be updated regularly, they said.

A digital forensic lab is already in operation at Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to prevent cybercrimes and the government's information technology department.

Tapan Kanti Sarkar, president of CTO Forum, an independent organization of information technology officials, said thousands of malware are circulating online. Not all are effective. Only the ones penetrate firewalls of an organization can carry out cyberattacks.

We need to take multifaceted steps to prevent malware attack. We warn everyone if we find any malware, he said.

Meanwhile, a research report published last year by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) said half of Bangladesh's banks are still at risk of cybersecurity. As a result, banks could be the victims of a major cyberattack at any time.

It said the next-generation firewall has failed to fully secure the cybersecurity of 50 percent of the country's online transactions.

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