Plan to craft strategy as cyber crimes crank up

The telecom regulator has planned to prepare a long-term cyber security strategy to protect computers, networks, programmes and data from unintended access and destruction, officials said.
They said the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has already formed a committee headed by its vice president Ahsan Habib Khan to draft the strategy. The system and services division director general will be working as the chief executive.
 "We've formed a high-powered committee to prepare the strategy soon," the commission's secretary Md. Sarwar Alam told the FE.
The move comes after a call from the industry and civil society groups as ICT-related crimes grew in recent times.
The secretary said the committee will prepare the policy guidelines after analysing present activities of the counter cyber crime organisation BD CSIRT (Bangladesh Computer Security Incident Response).
Mr Alam said although BD-CSIRT is entrusted with protecting websites of government and other organisations from cyber attacks, its capacity is limited.
Experts, however, have hailed the latest move to prepare such a strategy, but they are doubtful about its implementation.
"The initiative is positive for the nation, although it came late," said Mustafa Jabbar, former president of the Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS).
He said the existing cyber security is very vulnerable and fragile, which might lead to disaster anytime in future.
 "Today, the war has shifted from the traditional battle field to virtual world," Mr Jabbar said, adding that the government should understand the issue.
The IT analyst said in this age of information technology, both personal life and national life are under cyber threat.
 "Each and every internet user across the country is being abused by other internet users," Mr Jabbar said, adding that even the government's administrative function is under threat.
The IT expert also cautioned the country's financial institutions including banks, against possible cyber threats from the hackers groups, who always look for chance.
"Unfortunately, there is no cyber security law in the country to give legal protection to the internet users," he said.
"Presently, the government is following ICT act to deal with the cyber crimes, which is not desirable," Mr Jabbar said requesting the government to enact a separate law.
He suggested the government enact a cyber security law immediately, taking the opinions of all parties including experts into account.
"Its high-time the government works for safeguarding the valuable virtual world before having an unwanted disaster," he noted.
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