‘Bangladesh-India joint effort a must to deal with cyber threats’

Experts from Bangladesh and India at a function here today emphasized enhancing the skills and capabilities of individuals engaged in technology-related tasks to safeguarding digital space in the face of fast-growing cyber-attacks and threats.

The speakers said this at the inaugural session of the 3-day Cyber security Training and Exercise programme under Cyber-Maitree 2023 held at the BCC auditorium on Monday.

More collaborative endeavour for sharing knowledge and experiences, along with offering exercises and training in cyber resilient, networks vulnerability, cyber risk assessment and awareness etc, can significantly strengthen capacity to effectively combat cyber-attacks and threats, they said.

The World Bank funded Enhancing Digital Government and Economy (EDGE) Project of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under ICT Division organized the function, said a press release.

Chaired by BCC Executive Director Ranajit Kumar, the function was addressed, among others, by ICT Secretary Md. Shamsul Arefin, Senior Director of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) S. S. Sarma of India, Director General of Digital Security Agency (DSA) Abu Sayed Md. Kamruzzaman and EDGE Project Director Md. Shakhawat Hossain.

Shamsul Arefin said 'Cyber-Maitree 2023' has been a shining example of collaboration between the government of Bangladesh and India.

In fact, 'Cyber-Maitree 2023' will serve as a collaborative platform for the exchange of knowledge, capacity building, and international collaboration in the field of cybersecurity, he said, adding that the participants will be enriched and build their capacity to deal with the cyber-attacks and threats.

Ranajit Kumar said the training and exercise under 'Cyber-Maitree 2023' will help enriching the employees involved in safeguarding critical information infrastructure.

Highlighting the escalating frequency of cyber-attacks in the context of rapidly advancing digitized world, S. S. Sarma said that countries dependence on cyberspace is increasing and critical information infrastructure (CII), such as power systems, civil aviation, national security, banks, and, utilities is connected with the internet.

He stressed the critical importance of enhancing the skills and capacity of individuals involved in IT-related tasks to effectively address and mitigate cyber threats.

Shakhawat Hossain said various services, including the government, banking, and finance, are connected with internet. So any incapacity or destruction would have a devastating impact on national security, economic and social well-being of citizens, he added.

When asked about 'Cyber-Maitree 2023', BGD-eGov CIRT Project Director Engineer Saiful Alam Khan who is coordinating the programme said this programme has been launched as a part of Bangladesh and India collaborative efforts to gain knowledge and build capacity of government officials to address cyber-attacks.

Later, in the training session senior scientist of CERT-India Ashutosh Bahuguna presented keynote paper on `Cognitive Shifting: Security to Resilience' that highlighted various cyber threats including cyber extortion and ransom, social engineering, advanced persistent threats, hybrid threats, false flag operations, networks manipulation occurring in the cyber space.