Banks not prepared against cyber attacks
The commercial banks in Bangladesh lack the capacity to defend against cyber attacks due to shortage of skilled manpower and logistics, according to experts.
They say the management does not show interest in investing in cyber security.
State Minister for Finance MA Mannan told the daily sun that the capacity of the banking sector is not up to the mark to prevent cyber attacks.
“However, after the cyber heist of Bangladesh Bank fund last year, the government has taken initiatives to upgrade the cyber security systems at the central bank.
It has been a wake-up call. The commercial banks have also started strengthening their capacity to protect their networks from cyber attacks,” he said.
Mentioning that there is a lack of skilled manpower in the country in the area of cyber security, the state minister expressed hope that the new graduates will fill up the gaps over the next four to five years.
“The main issue is that the managements of financial institutions are not investing enough in cyber security. Most of the banks depend on their existing IT teams to ensure the security of their networks. It’s very important to update the security shield,” Tapan Kanti Sarkar, former Chief Information Officer of NCC Bank, told daily sun.
Sarkar, who also leads the CTO Forum, a platform of top technical executives of financial institutions, has been working for capacity building of the IT professionals working in the financial sector.
The financial technology expert also recommended establishing a separate ‘cyber security’ division at banks and insurance companies to keep the networks more secure.
A networking engineer at a private bank said the banks and financial institutions should invest more to develop their own security firewall to thwart any potential cyber attacks.
In the second week of this month, a ransomware named ‘WannaCry’ hit thousands of devices across 100 countries around the world. Security experts found that at least 30 devices in Bangladesh were also affected by the attack.
Earlier in February last year, the central bank experienced the biggest attack in which hackers breached Bangladesh Bank’s systems and used the SWIFT messaging network to order the transfer of nearly $1 billion from its account at the New York Fed.
news:daily sun/26-may-2017
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