Bangladesh at highest risk of ransomware Trojan attacks

Bangladesh is on top of the list of countries at risk of ransomware Trojan attacks, according to a recent survey by Kaspersky.

According to the survey, 3.69% of the Kaspersky users in Bangladesh suffer Trojan attacks, which is the highest in the world, said Tarique M Barkatullah, project director of Bangladesh Government's e-Government Computer Incident Response Team (BGD e-GOV CIRT) and director (operations) of Digital Security Agency, on Monday at a press conference.

The Cyber Security Agency of the ICT Division organised the press conference on emerging cyber threats at the national level at the ICT Bhaban in the capital yesterday.

Ransomware is a type of malware that threatens to publish the victim's personal data or permanently block access to it unless a ransom is paid.

At the press conference, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, "The BGD e-Gov CIRT has recently observed an increase in cyber-attacks on critical public and private information infrastructures. Currently we are not safe from cyber-attacks, rather we are at the centre of it."

He said cyber-attacks have recently increased worldwide amid a global economy worsening due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Cyber criminals more frequently try to attack the banking, finance, and power sectors, said the state minister for ICT.

Hackers steal information from public and private organisations and extort money from people and businesses.

Earlier, foreign hackers launched Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) cyber-attacks on the national Covid-19 vaccine registration app "Surokkha".

"They created a phishing site called 'Shurokkha.com' to steal people's personal information but we were able to successfully thwart the attempt," said the state minister.

The BGD e-Gov CIRT, which is responsible for maintaining cybersecurity in the country, identified the attacks during its regular monitoring.

Palak also said cyber criminals have already tried to attack a number of mobile companies.

"Hackers have stolen many credit card details as online use of credit cards has increased in the country. BGD e-Gov Cert informs the appropriate authorities as soon as it receives such information through regular enquiries," he said.

Due to the emerging crisis, BGD e-Gov CIRT advised all authorities concerned to install or update anti-DDoS hardware and software and set proper anti-DDoS protection threshold limits to keep all important information infrastructure safe in Bangladesh as per the "Digital Security Protection Guidelines for Critical Information Infrastructure".

Palak also urged the general people as well as the government to become more cautious to prevent these kinds of attacks.

He further said Bangladesh is working with different countries to prevent cyber-attacks.

"Other countries give us information if they get any information on cyber-attack. Cyber security cannot be ensured by any country alone. Criminals from different countries are committing cyber-crimes," he said.

He said, "We think that most of the cyber-attacks are committed under the sponsorship of various states. Our own data centres are also very vulnerable."

BTRC Vice-Chairman Subrata Roy said, "We have shut down a number of gambling sites. However, we cannot control the gambling run by downloading apps from Google play store."

"We have no control over Facebook and Youtube. We cannot control contents uploaded from abroad," he added.

In 2019, Bangladesh scored 83rd in the National Cyber Security Index (NCSI) published by Estonia, however, the country advanced to the 33rd position in 2022.

Following Bangladesh, the biggest percentages of users suffering from Trojan attacks were reported in Haiti (1.79%), Sudan (1.69%), Turkmenistan (1.41%), Palestine (1.33%), Yemen (1.10%), Tajikistan (1.03%), China (1.01%), Ethiopia (1%) and Pakistan (0.87%).