With technical and financial help from South Korea, the government is going to establish a full-fledged national cyber security body called the National Digital Security Agency (NDSA) to oversee the country’s cyber security and operational activities. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division has already begun negotiations with the South Korean authorities to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the assistance needed to establish the NDSA, according to sources.

The negotiations are being conducted on the basis of the discussions between Bangladesh and South Korea during South Korean prime minister Lee Nak-yeon’s visit here on July 13.

ICT Division secretary NM Zeaul Alam told The Independent that they were in talks with the South Korean authorities for technical and financial assistance to set up the agency. “We have a MoU with South Korea on the matter and it would be modified, if required,” he said.

“Before taking any technical and financial assistance from South Korea, we will consider the experience of Singapore, whose national cyber security agency is reputed to have the best experience,” he added.

A team from his ministry would visit Singapore soon to get an idea how that country's national cyber security agency functions, he said.

A senior official of the ICT Division said they had commissioned the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to conduct a feasibility study on the construction of the agency’s infrastructural facilities like a forensic laboratory building, a training centre and other basics at the high-tech park in Kaliakoire, where the NDSA is to be located. “We have got three acres of land at the Kaliakoire High-tech Park for the agency,” he added.

The also official said that a team of A2i, working under the ICT Division, would visit Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) office on August 5 and 6 to get an idea of the way they function.

The CSA Singapore is a national agency that monitors cyber security strategy, operation, education, outreach, and ecosystem development.  It is part of the Singapore prime minister’s office and is managed by that country’s communications and information

ministry. Sources say the ICT ministry’s NDSA project will cost Tk. 1,196 crore. It would include a national security operation centre, national digital forensic laboratory, security monitoring platform, emergency response platform, cyber security training and simulation centre, national cyber incident response team (CIRT), and a building for the security agency at the Bangabandhu High-Tech Park at Kaliakoir in Gazipur district.