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The government finance ministry has warned that any bank in Bangladesh could be the victim of a cyber attack. Banks have already said they will increase security as a precautionary measure. At the same time, several commercial and state-owned banks have restricted their activities at ATMs.
In 2016, a cyberattack led to the theft of a total of £ 101 million in reserves from the central bank of Bangladesh, which is said to be the world’s largest theft so far in the banking sector.
Since then, the issue of cyber attacks has been a matter of concern for the country’s banking sector.
Letter from the Ministry of Finance
For the second time in the last two and a half months, two types of public and private banks have been warned about cyberattacks.
A letter from the Finance Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance to the country’s central bank said that in 2016, a North Korean-based group of hackers involved in stealing money from the Bangladesh Bank’s reserves could launch another attack. cyber against several banks in Bangladesh.
In this case, there is a risk of withdrawing money from bank ATMs and attacking the Swift network.
The letter asked the banks to take the necessary precautionary measures in this regard.
The letter was sent by the ministry to the central bank and state banks on Thursday, a finance ministry official told the BBC.
Since then, the central bank has issued warnings to commercial banks.
What measures have the banks taken?
Md Ataur Rahman, managing director of state-owned Sonali Bank, told the BBC that security in the online banking system had been strengthened at his bank following the ministry’s instructions.
“Actually, we have always valued it. After receiving this letter, we have taken some measures. As before our ATMs were open 24 hours a day, now it is closed for a time at night, increasing the number of guards and raising alerts. in the Swift system, “he said.
Similar warnings have been issued at other state-owned banks such as Sonali Bank.
In late August, the Bank of Bangladesh issued a letter warning of cyberattacks on the country’s banks.
As a precautionary measure, some banks began closing ATMs at night.
Some banks stop withdrawing money from the ATMs of customers of other banks.
Later, in late September, the central bank lifted the transaction warning and the situation normalized.
The largest network of private banks in Bangladesh is Dutch-Bangla Bank. Abul Kashem Mohammad Shirin, managing director of the bank, told the BBC that both the technical security of his organization and the security of ATMs had been strengthened since the first warning.
“We have completely isolated our Swift network as part of the technical alert,” he said.
“Typically, hackers send malware via email, so the Swift network has nothing to do with the other accounts that receive the email. It is completely disconnected from the network.”
He believes this will reduce the chances of hacking by inadvertently installing malware.
Swift is a means of carrying out important bank transactions. Through this, the bank sends messages to pay various debts.
There is a separate Swift code for each bank.
Risks when increasing security
A large chunk of the £ 101 million in reserves stolen by hackers via a cyberattack on Bangladesh’s central bank in 2016 has yet to be recovered.
Since then, the issue of cyber security has been identified as one of the biggest problems in the banking sector in Bangladesh.
But a 2019 study by the Bangladesh Institute of Banking Management (BIBM) found that half of the country’s banks did not fully install next-generation firewall software in cybersecurity.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of a private, mutual trust bank, says that the security measures banks must take to deal with the risk of cyberattacks often become a challenge for many banks.
“We have tried to implement the next generation firewall. Several banks have done it. But it is an ongoing process. Those who carry out cyberattacks are constantly looking for ‘loopholes’,” he said.
A firewall is a combination of hardware and software that acts as a security system to protect a system.
He said, “Overseas, they invest a lot in these securities, they spend billions of dollars. But since we have small balance sheets in Bangladesh, we cannot invest on that scale.”
He said that consumers must also be educated to prevent such attacks.
“Now whenever there is a transaction in the bank, an SMS is sent. If there is something, we can take action if we inform the bank immediately. If it is late, it becomes difficult.”
Source: BBC
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