Kayes Sohel | IMAWS
Bangladesh has given the highest priority to fend off cyberattacks rising rapidly in recent months. “. Faster digitization, readiness for 5G, and unfamiliarity about cybercrimes has led to a surge in cyber vulnerabilities in the country. Cyber attacks are on the rise in Bangladesh,” Tarique M Barkatullah, the Director, Operations at the Digital Security Agency of Bangladesh says.
“The government has been putting all its eggs into a basket to prevent the cyber threats. But most businesses and people in Bangladesh are still least concerned about the cybercrimes, letting the cybercriminals in attacking many fold,” he said. More than 92% of MSMEs are unaware of cyber security despite around 40% of them having directly or indirectly been victims of cyber attacks, according to a study conducted between June and September 2022 by Inspira – a research farm. Only 7.7% of such entrepreneurs can identify cyber threats and 82% think that cyber security is not relevant for them at all, it said.
Phishing, malware, and insider threat have been identified as the biggest cyberthreats in Bangladesh, according to a 2021 government report. Bangladesh accounted for more than 7% of the average daily spam volume worldwide, ranking 29th among the spam sources by country, said the report.
Apart from the spam, Bangladesh has been encountering phishing and malware frequently. Data breach, web-based attacks, DDoS, and identity theft are also among the biggest cyber threats in the country, according to the report.
“To face the threats, public and private enterprises are now showing interest in investing in smart tools,” said Md Muqeet Halim, Chief Executive Officer at Beetles, a cyber security consultancy company in Bangladesh.
“As the country is now at the serious risks of the cyber threats, we’re born out of that realization,” he said. The enterprise cybersecurity needs were limited before Covid-19 worldwide to protecting IT infrastructures, but now, with rapid tech adoption, the risk of cybersecurity threats increase manifold, he added.
“The cyber security issue is very new in the context of Bangladesh,” said Raihan Hossain, Chief Commercial Officer at Reve Systems.
“Yet, the cybersecurity market is increasingly growing in the country as the enterprises are gradually understanding its needs,” he said. According to a report by ResearchAndMarkets.com, the cyber security market in Bangladesh is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.41% until 2025. The report states that the growth in the market is primarily driven by factors such as the increasing number of cyber threats, the rising adoption of cloud-based solutions, and the increasing focus on data protection and privacy.
Furthermore, the report suggests that the cybersecurity market in Bangladesh is still in its nascent stage, and there is a huge untapped potential for growth in the country. The report highlights that the increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, coupled with the growing awareness about cybersecurity, is expected to create significant opportunities for cybersecurity vendors and solution providers.
Overall, the cybersecurity market in Bangladesh is expected to witness strong growth in the coming years, driven by various factors such as the increasing adoption of digital technologies and the rising need for data protection and privacy.
“As Bangladesh prepares to roll out a 5G network, the IoT devices will increase, bringing new challenges to the security,” said eGeneration Managing Director Shameem Ahsan. Several big organisations are using pirated software here, which ultimately also poses cybersecurity risks. Those are mostly useless but still used just because of a lack of awareness, according to him.
However, he said, enterprises are starting to keep aside a big budget for investing in cybersecurity. “Bangladesh has embarked on transforming itself from a digital to a smart country. Therefore, cybersecurity is critical for the country,” he said.
In October, 2022, the government named 29 agencies and institutions such as the Prime Minister’s Office, central and state-owned banks, and the national identity and immigration departments as ‘critical information infrastructure’, officially declaring illegal access to their information as a punishable offence.
According to a report of the Bangladesh government’s e-Government Computer Incident Response Team, cyber-attacks, especially malware attacks, increased tremendously in Bangladesh. As many as 5,25,820 counts of malware infections have been identified from January 2022 to April 2022 amongst the users of the four telecom operators in the country.
Dhaka Distributions CEO Prabeer Sarkar said, “There is nothing without security in the real world. And the digital world is just like that.In today’s context, we all live and work in both worlds. So, while we practice security protocols in every step of our real life, it is exactly the same in our online life. Bangladesh is transforming digitally fast. So do we have a demand for cybersecurity? Actually, cybersecurity comes first before the transformation. Unless the security part is baked in first at the very planning stage, digital transformation will fail. There is no second thought to that,” he said.
“Bangladesh is experiencing a rapid increase of cybercrimes. Local threat actors are surfacing in everyday life. We have reached that generation where homegrown cyber threats are becoming equally menacing. High time that Bangladesh is constantly made aware of cybercrimes,” said Sarkar. “We can learn from others-the experiences of earlier developed societies. And we can be more effective in our cyber security culture starting now as we embark on that digital transformation journey. Of course, there is a demand for cyber security in Bangladesh. However, not just users, technology also goes beyond the concept of users today. It is present in everything and everywhere. We need a secure digital Bangladesh. That would be the smarter transition.”
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