Bangladesh e-Gov CIRT conducted the country's first ever Cyber Drill on 22nd October. A total of 35 teams from different types of organisations, including banks & non-bank financial institutions, participated in the drill aimed at sharpening skills during incident handling and building resilience and capacity for handling cyber threats in future.
Director General of Digital Security Agency Md. Rezaul Karim and Project Director of BGD e-GOV CIRT Tarique M Barkatullah inaugurated the event, while John Davies, Co-founder & Chairperson of Cyber Wales, very proudly gave the opening presentation.
Cyber Wales returned the honour by inviting the Director General and the Project Director to speak at the Cyber Wales Middle East Cluster webinar on 1st November.
The honourable guests from Bangladesh at the event included:-
- Mr. Md Rezaul Karim, Director General Digital Security Agency, Bangladesh
- Mr. Tarique M Barkatullah, Project Director, BGD e-GOV Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) & Director of National Data Centre at Bangladesh Computer Council
- Her Excellency Ms. Sadia Muna Tasneem, High Commissioner, Bangladesh High Commission, London
- Mr. S M Jakaria Huq, Commercial Counsellor for Trade, Commerce and Investment, Bangladesh High Commission, London
- Numerous Members of the BGD e-Gov CIRT organisation from across the country
The aim of the session was to facilitate knowledge exchange and raise awareness of Cyber Hygiene, Cyber Innovation, Cyber Wellness, Cyber Best Practice, Cyber Research and Development and to maximize the benefits of digital development and reduce the risks associated with it. To offer assistance in handling cyber security issues and to join forces for a digital defence exercise to prepare for possible cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure as coronavirus-related cyber-attacks increase.
Mr Md Rezaul Karim said "We strongly believe that the efficiency of detecting and reacting to cyber-attacks is important and it will be more feasible to act quickly and appropriately by close cooperation with other countries and with organisations such as Cyber Wales".
Jason Davies, Co-founder and Director of Cyber Wales went on to say "In addition to the ICT & Cyber initiatives in Bangladesh, as cyber-attacks have the potential to cause substantial economic and reputational damage, we would like to show our solidarity and interest in BGD e-GOV CIRT, the Digital Security Agency of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Computer Council and Bangladesh ICT community as a whole by inviting all members to attend the regular Cyber Wales Middle East Cluster webinars in order to promote cyber awareness within public and private sectors and collaborate on potential cyber and data security issues. We hope that in the near future both Cyber Wales and BGD e-GOV CIRT and/or other Bangladesh Agencies can identify areas of joint cooperation in the field of cyber security and continue to create an environment conducive to innovation through sharing best practices".
This webinar formed part of a new series of Virtual Cyber Security Cluster meetings being run in collaboration with our strategic partners in the UAE and the Middle East Region and this particular session was dedicated to the celebration of the UAE's Flag Day, a national campaign to honor the country's past, present and future. Flag Day is celebrated on November 3, the anniversary of HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan becoming the president of the UAE in 2004. Happy Flag Day to all in the UAE.