Out of 35 Critical Information Infrastructures (CII) in the country, only 8 infrastructures are strictly following NOK, SOC and CIRT. In addition, the country is in danger of major cyber-attacks in the banking, ready-made garments, telecom and electricity and fuel sectors of the country. Attempts are being made from abroad to destroy the infrastructure of the state. For this reason, instructions have been given to strictly adhere to the security protocols of the important information infrastructures of the country to prevent potential cyber-attacks.
State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak gave this information after the stakeholder meeting held on National Cyber Security Review at the BCC Meeting Room in Agargaon in the capital on Tuesday.
He said, “Unfortunately, the truth is, most of the 35 CIIs are at risk of cyber-attacks on our list and those are not following the guidelines and have not completed adequate preparations.” In today’s technology-driven world, no one is 100% safe from cyber risks. Many cyber-attacks are motivated by individuals or certain groups and states. We have also been victims of cyber-attacks many times. Therefore, I will ask all government and private institutions and individuals to follow the instructions and not to use unauthorized and unlicensed apps or portals.
The Secretary of Posts and Telecommunications Dr. Mushfiqur Rahman; Director General of Telecom Directorate …. K. M. Habibur Rahman; NTMC Director General Major General Ziaul Ahsan; NSI Director Colonel Shafiq; DGFI DG Brigadier Nizam Tamjid; BTRC Director General Khalil Ur Rahman; BCC Executive Director Ranjit Kumar; National Cyber Security Agency Director General Abu Saeed Md Kamruzzaman; ISPAB President Imdadul Haque and others were present in the meeting.
At the beginning of the press conference, the state minister said about the key-points of the meeting. He warned that cyber-attacks can happen both at the government and private level. So, we should follow cyber security protocols both individually and institutionally. To protect against the risk of cyber-attacks and keep our cyber platform safe, we must follow the guidelines of our Network Operations Center (NOC), Security Operations Center (SOC) and Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT).
Palak said, currently, the use of VPN has increased 5 thousand times in the country. As a result, connecting to foreign IPs increases the pressure on bandwidth for Internet use. At the same time expressing regret to seven lakh freelancers, the state minister said that in response to the questions sent to the social media, TikTok has sincerely assured the cooperation of the government. However, Facebook and YouTube have not given any explanation so far. You have until tomorrow morning to get a reply from them. If the answer is satisfactory, they will be opened.
Meetings are scheduled with representatives of TikTok, Facebook at 10 am and YouTube at 11 am at BTRC on Wednesday.
In response to another question from the journalists, the state minister said that in the last 10 days there have been cyber-attacks on 8 websites and 70 educational institutions. Websites have been hit more than 50,000 times. However, there was no financial or non-financial loss to the government.
However, despite being attacked, Bangladesh Bank’s website was not hacked, said Palak. He said, apart from fostering prevention, defense and post incident response, National Cyber Security Assessment Team and White Hacker Forum will be constituted.
Meanwhile, the State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology suggested three types of preparations to deal with cyber-attacks. He said, besides taking preventive measures, incident response, and post-incident response measures, we can take some necessary steps to deal with the risk of cyber-attacks. These are taking the website offline in case of attack, regularly updating passwords, using multi-factor authentication for login to any portal, conduct security audit.
Regarding the slow speed of the Internet, Palak said, we have not put any restrictions on the Internet, we have not put any barriers. Our technical persons say that the use of internet has increased by almost 5 thousand percent due to the use of VPN. People who are using VPN are using network of other country. As a result, the use of bandwidth is increasing abroad. This is one of the reasons for slow internet.
In a question whether cyber risk is increasing in using VPN, State Minister Palak said that cyber risk is increasing in using VPN. Whether we’re individuals or organizations using VPN applications, our security experts advise that using a VPN means putting data at risk. Cyber security experts suggest that we use the media to convey the message to individuals, organizations and all levels of government that using virtual private network applications is risky for us.
