Some web services restored in Bangladesh amid fears of cyberattack

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Web services of some government departments in Bangladesh were restored on Wednesday amid warning of a cyberattack on official and private websites, officials said.

The country's central bank and the election commission put their web-based services offline fearing cyberattack by an Indian hacker group, which threatened to disrupt computer networks of financial institutions, healthcare and other official departments.

The precautionary measure was taken after an alert from a state-run agency responsible for maintaining cybersecurity.

The group said the hacking could take place on Tuesday, Aug. 15, a national mourning day in Bangladesh, and the independence day of India.

“We shut the server on Monday night as a precautionary step,” Election Commission's Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath told Anadolu, adding it was back online on Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, there were claims that the hackers got access to and leaked data from 25 government and private institutions, including the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (CIRT) and Directorate General of Health Services.

Bangladesh e-Government Computer Incident Response Team spokesman Sukanta Chakraborty said they were analyzing what happened and would only make an official comment once the situation was clear. "Some websites often face service disruption due to maintenance works,” he added.