Cybersecurity systems of banks seen not failsafe - The Financial Express

Cybersecurity systems of banks seen not failsafe - The Financial Express

A record number of both Bangladeshi public and private banks are currently in peril of unprecedented cyber-attacks mainly for their indifference and fragile cyber-security systems, prompting experts to suggest immediate action, sources say.


Stakeholders and experts say a large percentage of banks are not taking enough precautionary measures to fend off the possible large-scale, hazardous attacks, and avert bigger financial loss, which they deemed imminent.



The malicious actors behind such trans-border invasion include not only increasingly daring criminals-such as the Carbanak group, which targeted financial institutions to steal more than $1.0 billion during 2013-18 period-but also states and state-sponsored criminal gangland, according to a 2021 report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).


The country has yet to measure its financial losses caused by cybercrimes--the most outrageous being the theft of its reserves from the US Fed by an international cybercrime gang.


Earlier in June 2022, the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) conducted a study based on the situation of the banking sector as of 2020 which found nearly 52 per cent of banks at grave risk of cyber-attacks.


In April 2020, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) warned that "a major cyber-incident, if not properly contained, could seriously disrupt financial systems, including critical financial infrastructure, leading to broader financial stability implications."


On March 3 in 2016, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued a guideline asking the banks to boost their cybersecurity capabilities after the bank's never-seen-before type of orchestrated reserve heist.


The regulator also had directed them to form security operation centre (SOC) to oversee security measures round the clock.


But most banks have yet to install SOCs, sources added, leaving such vigil a far cry.


With this phenomenon in view, experts also sought regulator's heightened measures ..

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