Many questions have been raised by the theft of Bangladesh Bank’s funds.
Investigations into hacking have highlighted many potential areas where there were either technical shortcomings or established procedures were not effective in preventing data from being misused and stolen.
It is concerning the home minister’s initial statement about the disappearance of IT expert Tanvir Hasan Zoha was unclear and included speculation that Zoha might have been arrested for questioning over the Bangladesh Bank fund heist.
As the minister responsible for police, it is troubling that he did not know for sure and also said he had no idea about allegations that no police station took a general diary after he went missing.
Equally worrisome are statements by the ICT division denying any link with Zoha after media reports named him as working for it as a cyber security specialist.
Such lack of clarity in official responses gives little assurance to citizens about the state of IT security in the country.
It also has implications for the drive by DMP asking all landlords in Dhaka to submit forms containing personal details about their tenants to the police.
While the police have given assurances they will safeguard confidential data and make sure it is not misused, the Bangladesh Bank theft makes it even more urgent that everything is done to limit the risk of citizens’ personal information being misused.
The government needs to bring in an effective data protection act to uphold the public’s right to privacy of personal information on databases.
A commission should be established to develop and uphold higher standards and to facilitate easy-to-use redress mechanisms for action to be taken if any personal information is misused.
It is imperative that the government be more pro-active in safeguarding personal data to build and increase trust in public institutions.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
