Cyber protection act on cards

After the act is put in place, all govt servers and portals will be integrated under a central platform

The government will put in place the National Enterprise Architect (NEA) Act to protect its web portals from hackers. At a secretary-level meeting on last Thursday, the Cabinet secretary asked the secretary of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division to implement the Act, sources in the Cabinet and ICT Divisions said.
After the Act is put in place, all government servers and portals will be integrated under a central platform for cyber protection of data, the sources explained.
Some foreign hackers, especially from Pakistan, have been repeatedly trying to hack into the networking systems and web portals of some government organisations, including the Bangladesh Bank (BB) and the foreign ministry, said a secretary who attended the meeting. “Pakistani hackers tried to hack the web portal of the foreign ministry 40 times. But they failed,” he told The Independent on condition of anonymity.
He said the government has set up the NEA system at the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) recently to protect its cyber systems against attacks. The NEA system helped it identify the hackers, the countries and the networking systems from which they were operating, and the portals they were targeting.
The secretary of the ICT Division, Subir Kishore Choudhury, told this correspondent that they have already prepared a draft of the NEA Act. It will be sent to the ministries and divisions, seeking their opinions, before it is finalised. “We will be able to link all the ministries and divisions, and even the government departments, under a central system, so that all of them can easily access the system,” he said. “We have already formed a Cyber Security Agency under the BCC,” he added.
In February 2016, instructions to steal USD 951 million from the central bank of Bangladesh were issued via the SWIFT network. In five transactions, hackers withdrew reserves worth USD 101 million from a BB account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Of that, USD 20 million was traced to Sri Lanka and recovered, and USD 81 million was traced to the Philippines. Of that, about USD 18 million was recovered.

 

Cyber protection act on cards

After the act is put in place, all govt servers and portals will be integrated under a central platform

The government will put in place the National Enterprise Architect (NEA) Act to protect its web portals from hackers. At a secretary-level meeting on last Thursday, the Cabinet secretary asked the secretary of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division to implement the Act, sources in the Cabinet and ICT Divisions said. After the Act is put in place, all government servers and portals will be integrated under a central platform for cyber protection of data, the sources explained. Some foreign hackers, especially from Pakistan, have been repeatedly trying to hack into the networking systems and web portals of some government organisations, including the Bangladesh Bank (BB) and the foreign ministry, said a secretary who attended the meeting. Pakistani hackers tried to hack the web portal of the foreign ministry 40 times. But they failed, he told The Independent on condition of anonymity. He said the government has set up the NEA system at the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) recently to protect its cyber systems against attacks. The NEA system helped it identify the hackers, the countries and the networking systems from which they were operating, and the portals they were targeting. The secretary of the ICT Division, Subir Kishore Choudhury, told this correspondent that they have already prepared a draft of the NEA Act. It will be sent to the ministries and divisions, seeking their opinions, before it is finalised. We will be able to link all the ministries and divisions, and even the government departments, under a central system, so that all of them can easily access the system, he said. We have already formed a Cyber Security Agency under the BCC, he added. In February 2016, instructions to steal USD 951 million from the central bank of Bangladesh were issued via the SWIFT network. In five transactions, hackers withdrew reserves worth USD 101 million from a BB account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Of that, USD 20 million was traced to Sri Lanka and recovered, and USD 81 million was traced to the Philippines. Of that, about USD 18 million was recovered.