The government has initiated a move to establish a full-fledged national digital security agency (NDSA) to prevent cyber crimes and to ensure security of digital highway.
The ICT Division under the Ministry of Posts Telecommunications and Information Technology has devised a project worth Tk 11.96 billion to start full-scale operation of the proposed NDSA. The three-year project is planned to start this year.
When contacted, M N Ziaul Islam, secretary of the ICT Division, said the country is currently facing several challenges on cyber security, as e-service, e-commerce and e-trade etc have become targets of hackers across the world.
"Bangladesh has invested a lot on those to bring various services to the fingertips of citizens. Their increased access to internet has also helped to flourish e-commerce and e-business in the country."
"The key objective of NDSA will be to protect these digital services and infrastructures from global attacks of cyber criminals," Mr Islam said.
He further said the government has recently passed the Digital Security Act, under which the agency is being established.
"In line with the rules we have already set up an office, headed by a director general. Under his leadership, a committee is working to complete establishment of a full-fledged agency," he added.
It is learnt that several countries, including China, Korea and India, have expressed their interest to cooperate with Bangladesh for establishing the agency.
The pre-development project proposal (DPP) of the project said seven components will be included in the project.
These are - establishment of national security operation centre, national digital forensic lab, establishment of security monitoring platform, establishment of emergency response platform, establishment of cyber security training and simulation centre, establishment of a national cyber incident response team (CIRT), and construction of a building of the agency in Bangabandhu High-Tech Park at Kaliakoir in Gazipur.
Of the Tk 11.96 billion project cost, the government will provide Tk 1.25 billion. The rest Tk 10.71 billion will be funded by the development partners.
The government approved 'The National Cyber-security Strategy of Bangladesh' in 2014, which is one of the long-term measures for protecting the country's cyber world and national security against various threats, risks and challenges.
The strategy outlines a framework for organising and prioritising efforts to manage risks to cyberspace or critical information infrastructure.
"To achieve the aforesaid goals, this strategy significantly raises the profile of cyber-security within our government, and defines clear roles and responsibilities," according to the strategy text.
"Cognizant of the shared nature of cyber vulnerabilities, this strategy also requires a public-private partnership to fix the potential vulnerability of private sector-owned critical infrastructures in banking, utilities and telecommunications sectors against cyber attacks," it added.
