Bangladesh Bank website restored after 3-day shutdown over cyberattack fears

Bangladesh Bank’s official website was taken offline last Thursday amid fears of a cyberattack. It was restored at 8:00 am today, Sunday, after three days.

However, internet banking and mobile banking transactions continued as normal over the past three days, so customers faced no disruption to their transactions.

Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan told Prothom Alo Sunday that the website had been checked for possible vulnerabilities. The decision to take it offline was made amid fears of attacks worldwide. As the risk has subsided, the website has been restored, he said.

The internet and software are now essential for operating government services, banking, e-commerce, news outlets and various online platforms. A large proportion of these websites rely on the PHP programming language.

The recent discovery of two serious security vulnerabilities in PHP has raised global concerns about cybersecurity.

According to reports by the BBC and Reuters, governments in various countries have taken emergency measures after two serious security vulnerabilities were identified in PHP, a widely used programming language for building and operating websites.

After news of the vulnerabilities emerged, governments and commercial organisations around the world began shutting down their websites from Wednesday night. Despite these measures, reports in various media outlets indicate that millions of hacking attempts have been made.