One cyber-hacking takes place in every 39 seconds, says expert in Dhaka

One incident of hacking takes place every 39 seconds across the globe, experts have said at a workshop on cyber security in Dhaka.

Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management or BIBM and Trans IT Solution jointly organised the workshop on Sunday.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir was present at the workshop held at the BIBM auditorium.

Cyber security expert Rubaiyat Akbar said: “Hackers attack every 39 seconds across the globe.”

Only ransomware caused an estimated loss of $1 bn in 2016, he noted.

Ransomware is a kind of malware that impedes activities of a computer user after logging in. Sometimes it encrypts information from the hard drive by using a specific password. It demands ransom from the user within a particular timeframe.

“Cybercrimes may take the amount to $6 trillion by 2021,” said Akbar.

Hackers first target executives in a bank then steal information of customers and try cracking into the payment system, he said.

Both the central and private banks in Bangladesh had fallen victim to the hackers in past years, he highlighted.

Bank staffers must be aware of the nature of cyber crimes for the possible prevention, he added.

Organisers showed how hackers infringe laptops and computers which were using unsafe Wi-Fi system.

“Bangladesh Bank has appointed a chief IT executive to address the matter. A guideline on IT security has also been chalked out,” said Fazle Kabir.

The participants stressed that training for bankers should be conducted both inside and outside the capital over cyber security.

“Any medium type disaster might bring closure to the customer care services in banks; anything of a larger scale might damage the whole banking system as we lack a secured data centre,” said Abul Kashem Md Shirin, managing director and CEO of Dutch-Bangla Bank.