‘Be proactive, not reactive, in dealing cyber risks of banks’

To ensure the cybersecurity of banks, there is no alternative to being cautious, said an expert while suggesting the banks to be proactive instead of being reactive.

"There is no advance preparation to deal with the issues of cybersecurity in Bangladesh," said Maruf Ahmed, chief executive officer of the DigiSec Council, a cyber-security think-tank.

" Online games make many attractive offers. Whenever someone clicks on such links, the hackers get the chance to steal information," said Maruf while speaking at a workshop on cybersecurity organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) on Tuesday.

"Users, not malware, are to blame for cyber attacks,"  Maruf said, adding that there will be no problem if users do not click on those malicious links.

The cyber expert suggested that all the bank officials need to be cautious about cybersecurity.

Jeff Felice, president of the CertNexus USA, and Desmond Devendran, director (training & consulting) of the Logical Operations USA, presented the paper "Cyber Security-First Responder: Threat Detection and Response" in the workshop.

Speaking as the chief guest, the Bangladesh Bank's Adviser SK Sur Chowdhury said this is the right time to be careful about cybersecurity.  

All banks including the Bangladesh Bank have formed cyber incident response teams to take immediate action against of cyber threat, Sur informed.

Internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, blockchain technology are getting momentum these days, Sur said, adding that security associated with these technologies will also have to be carefully considered.

The speakers also came up with some recommendations on initiating incident handling protocols; evaluating and analysing an incident, mitigating and eliminating its negative effects, recovering from it, reviewing and reporting the details of the incident, and drafting an after-action report.