State-owned Janata Bank’s website suffered a cyberattack despite being taken offline as a precaution against global security risks. The site remained inactive past 11:00 PM on Sunday as IT personnel worked to clear spam detected in at least two areas of the system.
A senior official from Janata Bank’s IT department confirmed the intrusion also stating that resolving the issue takes time but expressed optimism about restoring access soon. Meanwhile the official comments from the bank's leadership were unavailable following the government's decision to cancel the remaining tenure of Managing Director Mojibur Rahman earlier that day.
Both Bangladesh Bank and Janata Bank shut down their websites on Thursday following a October 21 warning from the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA). The agency alerted organizations to two severe vulnerabilities in PHP a widely used programming language that could allow attackers to execute malicious code on affected servers. ENISA advised temporarily isolating vulnerable web applications from the internet if security updates could not be applied immediately.
While Bangladesh Bank successfully restored its site on Sunday morning following a five-day holiday, Janata Bank remained offline due to the attack. Other state-owned institutions, including Sonali, Agrani, Rupali and BASIC Bank, maintained active websites throughout the evening.
