Bangladesh is the third most vulnerable country to malware assaults
Online transactions in e-commerce, online banking activities, and the use of mobile financial services (MFS) have increased across the country as a result of repeated lockdowns caused by Covid-19.
During the epidemic, for example, MFS has shown to be one of the most reliable methods of disbursing funds under the government’s numerous incentives and social security programmes. Various private enterprises, particularly the garment industry, have used such systems to pay salaries and bonuses.
However, the increasing adoption of new technologies raises the issue of cybersecurity, raising the question of how secure the Bangladeshi financial system is.
Bangladesh ranked third in the list of countries at risk of malware assaults on smartphones in the first quarter of this year, according to a survey by Kaspersky Lab. In Bangladesh, approximately 26 out of every 100 smartphone users are at risk of malware assaults this year, up from 13 out of 100 users just five years ago.
According to the data, ransomware attacks on computers in Bangladesh have climbed from 4-5 percent to 8.11 percent.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, has been able to maintain continual cybersecurity gains, rising 25 places in the newest edition of the International Telecommunication Union’s Global Cybersecurity Index from 78th to 53rd place (ITU).
This was mostly due to the fact that stakeholders and regulatory organisations, such as the central bank, have taken several initiatives throughout time to improve consumer protection in terms of data and system security.
“Scams involving MFS have decreased significantly as a result of our efforts to raise societal awareness.” “A large portion of our promotional budget has been allocated to reaching the general public in order to raise awareness about the importance of protecting their own personal data,” the official told the Dhaka Tribune.
According to him, bKash strongly advises its users not to disclose personal data — such as OTPs, PINs, and NIDs — with anyone who threatens them with account closure or promises incentives and awards in exchange for personal information obtained through social engineering.
“Even the central bank recently issued two separate letters in this regard, cautioning banks and non-banking financial institutions [NBFIs] to establish effective IT teams to address cybersecurity,” he added.
According to Md Kyser Hamid, managing director of BD Finance, the central bank has requested for the formation of an IT management team to improve and develop the cybersecurity of NBFIs as part of the new instruction.
With increasing digitalization, NBFIs have become vulnerable to cybersecurity risks, according to him; some institutions now offer digital wallets, credit cards, and even consumer loans.
In this regard, he noted, “accelerated digitalization and remote working arrangements have increased the global financial sector’s susceptibility to cyber-risks and could lead to more complicated hacks that produce larger losses.”
Furthermore, because the central bank has not approved a cloud-based database management system, consumer data and financial records are stored on local servers rather than offshore in Singapore.
“This makes it more difficult for hackers to gain access to database systems,” Hamid explained.
Institutions have also begun engaging ethical hackers to monitor hacks and align systems properly, he noted, which has increased internal capacities.
“We engaged ethical hackers to align our systems, and we’re now using distinct APIs [Application Programming Interfaces] to give client care that isn’t connected to our primary banking system.”
“We implemented such precautions for extra security against any potential cyber attacks as online based transactions skyrocketed,” Hamid continued.
Before Covid-19, the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) released a paper titled “Cyber Security-First Responder: Threat Detection and Response,” which said that just 35% of the country’s banks have installed next-generation cybersecurity.
Due to the pandemic, there have been no more updates since this report in April 2019. The banking sector has improved significantly after the Bangladesh Bank reserve robbery, according to Mahbubur Rahman, an associate professor of BIBM who worked on the paper.
“I believe that practically all of the country’s top banks have reinforced the cybersecurity of their major branches in the previous two years,” he said.
They’ve modified their card system; formerly, they used magnetic cards, but now they use chip-based cards, which are more difficult to clone, he noted.
According to Rahman, investment in this area is expanding in Bangladesh as well as other parts of the world.