A number of over-cautious banks are yet to fully reinstate their ATM, credit card and online transaction services even four days after the Bangladesh Bank (BB) withdrew a cyber hacking alert.
The BB had on August 27 alerted banks to a possible cyber attack.
The alert was withdrawn on September 13 after consultations with the government's Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT).
“The CIRT told us that the risk of cyber attacks had decreased and then we withdrew the alert,” Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Md Serajul Islam told Dhaka Tribune.
"We informed all banks of the country of the development," he said.
However, some banks, including Brac Bank, City Bank, NCC Bank, Exim Bank and Dhaka Bank still maintain their restrictions on ATM services from 11:00pm to 7:00am.
As a result, customers of these banks have been suffering as they are unable to withdraw money from ATMs during this time.
Rabiul Islam (not real name), a client of Brac Bank, said he had needed money last night for his emergency treatment but could not withdraw money from the bank's ATM booth.
Not only Rabiul, but a large number of clients of those banks as well are suffering due to restricted ATM services.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, Brac Bank managing director and CEO Selim RF Hussain acknowledged that the nighttime suspension of their ATM service was still in place.
Despite admitting to receiving the central bank's alert withdrawal notice, he said the bank would be observing the issue for a few more days.
“I believe our clients are not suffering due to the restricted services as we had informed them about it through SMS,” the Brac Bank CEO stated.
Sanjib Chatterjee, vice president of corporate affairs and branding division of Exim Bank, said the bank had not received any Bangladesh Bank notice about withdrawing the alert, causing the bank into not withdrawing the alert.
Recently various international organizations informed the Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT), a government agency, that a North Korean hacker group was attempting to attack Bangladesh’s banking industry, said a high official of the Bangladesh Bank.
In response to the information, the BB alerted banks about the risk of cyber hacking.
The BB official said the central bank had instructed banks to strengthen their security measures to avoid the risk of being hacked.
The North Korean Hacker group’s name is Beagle Boys. It has been trying to steal money from various banks around the world through ATM booths and fake transactions.
Previously, the hacker group embezzled billions of dollars through cyber attacks, according to the CIRT.
Will restrictions on ATM services prevent hacking?
Despite banks believing that restricting ATM, card and online transactions may prevent a cyber attack, experts have opined otherwise.
According to a Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) research paper, the IT departments of around 50% banks of the country face security threats.
The paper also revealed that they still lacked knowhow on managing switches, next generation firewalls and email gateways, which are vital for ensuring banks' network security.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, BIBM director (training) Prof Shah Md Ahsan Habib said restriction of ATM services and online transactions at night were primary solutions but banks needed to strengthen their cyber security in the long run.
"In our country, some banks are weak in IT security while some banks enforce strong cyber security. The weaker banks must take steps to prevent any cyber hacks," he said.
Bank Asia President and Managing Director Md Arfan Ali said more investment was needed for cyber security as it remained an important challenge to digital banking.
