Bangladesh Bank’s website remained shut for a second consecutive day on Friday as a precautionary measure following a global cybersecurity alert. However, connections and operations between the central bank and commercial banks continued to function normally.
Bangladesh Bank took the website offline on Thursday (October 22) afternoon after receiving the global cybersecurity alert. The central bank is monitoring the security situation and working to ensure the website is adequately protected.
Arif Hossain Khan, executive director and spokesperson for Bangladesh Bank, said the website had not yet been restored because the bank was working to ensure comprehensive security. He added that connections between the central bank and commercial banks were operating normally.
According to Khan, Bangladesh Bank’s information technology department is working on the issue. However, no specific timeline has been announced for restoring the website.
The website remained inaccessible to users until 8:44pm on Friday (October 23). Visitors attempting to access it were shown a maintenance message stating that the service was currently undergoing maintenance and would be available again soon.
The precautionary shutdown came amid worldwide concern over serious security vulnerabilities identified in PHP, a widely used programming language. Cybersecurity firms Caliph and Wiz identified the vulnerabilities using artificial intelligence technology.
Against this backdrop, the government has also issued an alert concerning global cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Bangladesh Bank has previously suffered a major cyberattack. In 2016, hackers transferred US$101 million from the central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Following the incident, then-governor Atiur Rahman resigned.
Earlier, in 2023, Bangladesh Bank temporarily suspended several of its internal web-based services for 36 hours as a precautionary measure to address the risk of a potential cyberattack.
