The Bangladesh Election Commission's (EC) National Identity Card (NID) server remained offline for more than four hours on Wednesday, causing sufferings to many service-seekers.
Besides, some web-based services of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) remained inaccessible from 8:00 pm on Monday to 8:00 am on Wednesday - after the central bank carried out emergency system-maintenance activities, according to a BB circular.
The EC's NID server services remained temporarily suspended for maintenance purposes from Wednesday morning to noon, an official concerned told the FE.
Muhammad Ashraf Hossain, system manager of the NID Wing, said: "The EC's NID server was down from morning to 2:00 pm on Wednesday as part of our regular maintenance work. So, its services were inaccessible."
"The NID Wing assumed that the number of hits to our website might not be substantial on Wednesday, and it took a decision for conducting the maintenance work."
However, he pointed out that the NID Wing remained alert, as the Bangladesh Government's Computer Incident Response Team (BGD e-GOV CIRT) issued a cyber-security alert a week ago, after a group of hackers threatened to attack the cyberspace of Bangladesh in mid-August.
The hacktivists cited August 15, the National Mourning Day, as the date for their possible attack, according to the agency.
BGD e-GOV CIRT spokesperson Sukanta Chakraborty said there was no hacking-related issue in the NID server.
Maintenance work of the website had been going on since Tuesday, and it ended on Wednesday noon, he told the FE.
About 120 million citizens of the country have their personal information in the NID server.
Due to temporary disruption of the server, people particularly who visited the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) branch offices across the country for learner driving licences, had to face obstacles to get their required services, said Hossain Momtaz, programmer of Operation Wing at the BRTA head-office.
People faced disruptions while taking part in the BRTA's driving competency test, he told the FE.
Mobile customers faced sufferings in receiving SIM-related services during the period.
The EC's field-level officials along with NID service aspirants also experienced troubles.
An official said there was no indication on the NID website that it had been hacked. Its technical team worked under the director general's direction to look into all aspects. There was no risk of hacking, he added.
Recently, the personal information of millions of people was leaked out from the Registrar General Office's website for registration of birth and death. After that, the security issue in digital information management in the country came into discussion.
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