The Digital Security Agency under the Information and Communication Technology Division has said that the country’s mobile operators have been secretly subjected to cyber-attacks. In the close observation of the organization’s BGD e-GOV CIRT, it has been seen that apart from the financial and power sectors, organized hackers have set their eyes on the country’s mobile operators. ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that several mobile operators have already been attacked. He said that the databases, servers and infrastructure of the operators have already been affected. For this reason, the state minister has suggested to conduct an audit from a software testing lab in DSA calling for a quick IT audit.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak conveyed this information in an emergency press conference at the Bangladesh Computer Council conference room on Monday. He said that cyber security cannot be ensured by any country alone. BGD e-GOV CIRT is working to ensure this security collectively through cross-border communication. This organization of the government is highlighting the possible risks of international cyber-attacks and ways to protect them.
As a result, despite advancement in the international indexes, the recent activities of hackers show that banking and public-private financial institutions, including power supply and transmission lines, may be at risk. That is why the personal, familial and institutional awareness of every citizen is badly in need. We are trying to achieve technical capability and strict enforcement of laws and international communication system. But monitoring by Open Source Intelligence, or OSINT, has found an increase in the activity of state-sponsored hackers in recent times. For that he stressed on everyone to be careful and acquire technical skills.
BTRC Vice Chairman Subrata Roy Maitra, Digital Security Agency Director Md Khairul Amin and BGD e-GOV CIRT Director Tarek Mosaddek Barkatullah were present while Zeaul Alam, the Senior Secretary of ICT Division presided over the meeting.
BGD E-Gov Cert Director Tarek Barkatullah presented a picture of the country’s cyber risk at the press conference and said that on April 26, 1 crore 17 lakh 84 thousand 572 DDoS attacks were made on the country’s financial institutions in two minutes. It was possible to resist this attack. Earlier, on August 5 last year, this program was disrupted due to 6 crore 16 lakh 74 thousand 697 DDoS attacks on the Surokkha app. However, attacks from abroad were prevented by geo-fencing. Thus, DSA and BDCIRT have jointly conducted IT audits of 20 critical infrastructures to prevent and alert against cyber-attacks. They also identified 23 infrastructure risks. Cyber sensors have since been installed at 13 highly sensitive infrastructures. He said that Bangladesh is at the top of the world in terms of ransomware Trojan horse malware attacks. Daily malware traffic information has been shared by us.
In the event, Andromeda Avalanche was the most attacked last year, said BGD e-GOV CIRT Technical Team Leader Tawhidul Islam. He said that Android phones are not secure at all. Banking and personal information is increasingly being stolen from phones. In addition to this, malware is spreading through the game. For this reason, he suggested to update the operating system.
He said, 47 unique types of malware have been identified in the network of ISP and telecom service providers. Android Hammer is the most active among them. Last year this attack was the highest. They open the front camera. Last year we launched 40 Andromeda Avalanches across the country’s network. Both these viruses have been found in many mobile phones. They steal data from phones.
Ransomware threat group and the dark web, and now the attack pattern has changed. Small hackers now steal passwords and buy those credentials from big hackers to make big hits. As shown in the presentation, hackers have already set up shadow servers in the country’s government systems. Hacker group Snow Leopard sold systems data for $40,000 on May 10. Sold important e-mail ID for 12 thousand USD.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak said in response to various questions of journalists at the press conference, Bangladesh is working to improve international relations to deal with cyber risks. I have already signed the Paris Treaty. And working with the Ministry of Home Affairs to sign the Budapest Convention Treaty of the United Nations. Through multilateral cooperation, we are working to prevent cyber-attacks from abroad.