BGMEA must strengthen cyber security measures

SWINDLERS have made a number of attempts to steal money from western buyers through breaching email information of Bangladesh’s readymade garment exporters. Three RMG exporters have recently informed the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association that their email information had been breached and the buyers were asked to divert payment to different accounts. The fraudsters used email addresses that were almost identical to those of the exporters. They changed a single letter in the addresses to cheat the buyers. Due to such attempts to steal money by cheating, the BGMEA asked all its members to remain alert against deceptive emails. We are not very alert about cyber security in our country, which is why a large number of scams involving cyber security were able to be successful. From the notorious Bangladesh Bank hack by which almost 66 million USD went to the hackers who try to skim private bank ATMs, Bangladesh is no longer immune to cyber security hacks.

While the international banks have implemented strong mechanisms to prevent hacking we still don’t know what our central bank has done to make its cyber security strong. In fact there has been no progress on the case even after three years. Neither have we been able to recover the stolen money. The government also didn’t make the probe report public about the sensational heist. Whatever the case now is the time for our corporate offices to strengthen their cyber security and install mechanisms to prevent the leaks of their confidential financial and corporate items to ensure that in the future such mechanisms don’t take place. They must reform their cyber IT infrastructure to prevent such mechanisms from occurring again. Additionally they must screen the personnel who are in charge of the payment mechanisms so that such crucial information doesn’t leak out through them. Proper vigilance is a must for future prevention.
We fear some are trying to make a crack in the BGMEA, the prime foreign currency earning sector, so that they can take away a handful of money exploiting the laps of cyber security system.