The concept of ‘Digital Bangladesh’ is now widely known and is easily recognizable even in the remotest areas of Bangladesh. With the advent and widespread use of technology, being digital is possibly the most prudent way of addressing the future. Nowadays, everything can be done by just a ‘click’- be it payment of utility bills, withdrawing money from the ATM, making purchases online or the inter-bank transactions- everything has become so easy that people do not have to waste their time in the queue.
While, obviously, there are bright sides to the digital phenomena, there is a question that requires to be addressed- Is Bangladesh ready to face the cybercrime? The term ‘hacker’ does not require an introduction at this day and age. Starting from commercial websites to email accounts, from online to bank accounts to government web portals have all been hacked into by these so –called hackers who have time and again exploited the weak cyber law in Bangladesh to their fullest extent.
Cybercrime is a wide term and it necessarily encompasses any action committed through the use of internet or any other digital or online platform. To name a few- pornography, hate crimes, hacking into websites, unauthorized access to online banking information, identity theft, spamming, phishing etc. are all various forms of cybercrimes usually committed in Bangladesh.
The biggest problem of such cybercrimes is the inability to trace the perpetrator. The reason being that such crimes can be committed from anywhere in the world where there is access to internet. Compared to the global use of the internet, Bangladesh is still far from claiming to be an internet dependent nation but yet with rising demands, a significant portion of the people of Bangladesh are gradually realizing the importance of internet and as such it is pertinent to understand the laws that seek to protect us from these highly sophisticated and high-tech criminals.
One of the leading cases in cybercrimes in Bangladesh is the case of Mr. Mahmudur Rahman, the founder of Amar Desh, a daily newspaper for publishing reports on conversation between the ex-Chairman of International Crimes Tribunal and a foreign lawyer. Further, the recent bank heist in Bangladesh Bank amounting to almost 1 billion US Dollars has caused a havoc in the banking sector of Bangladesh. It has dented market confidence to a large extent and the banks have suffered the most as more and more online thefts have made very vulnerable to the cyber-attacks.
The only law that somewhat addresses the cybercrimes in Bangladesh is the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Act 2006 which came into force on 8th October 2006. The 2006 Act was then amended in 2009 and 2013. In 2010, the government passed the Information Technology (Certificate Authority) Rules in 2010. Despite having such laws, they are not proving to be effective against the prevention of cybercrimes in Bangladesh. The current law minister has also stated that the Government is well aware of the current situation and as such it is formulating a new law, namely Digital Security Act which seeks to incorporate 14 years of imprisonment as maximum punishment for the offenders.
Bangladesh is the next uprising economic force and as such the government and all its regulatory authorities should be well aware of the consequences of hacking. A major problem in Bangladesh is that the users of the internet are not well trained or well educated in terms of how to protect themselves in the digital platform. While it is understandable that the government is taking the requisite measures to curb the cybercrimes, it is not appreciated that they only focus on making laws. There must be awareness programmes being run simultaneously too otherwise, we may become digital within a few years but considering the constantly growing hackers, the day is not far that we choose to go back to the ‘analogue’ days. Just like the law enforcement authorities, the citizens have duties too- their duty is to be aware and make responsible use of the internet. Internet is indeed a force to reckon with today!
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