Bangladesh and many other countries are prone to eroding their progress in cybersecurity systems if they do not provide support for enhancing cybersecurity skills and awareness-raising initiatives, according to International Telecommunication Union report.
The report titled 鈥楪lobal Cybersecurity Index 2024鈥� published by the ITU, a specialised agency of the United Nations, said that cybersecurity had increasingly become a pressing financial priority for the whole world as global average cost of a data breach now exceeds $4.45 million.
Experts said that emerging economies like Bangladesh faced dual challenge of securing critical sectors and building cyber-resilient infrastructures, as inadequate cybersecurity measures could jeopardise burgeoning ICT exports and digital transformation goals.
According to the report, Bangladesh held Tier 1 rank amongst the countries in the Asia and the Pacific region, while the neighbouring countries Bhutan and Nepal remained in Tier 3. India also achieved a Tier 1 position, highlighting its significant strides in cybersecurity.
A Dhaka University professor highlighted the country鈥檚 impressive cybersecurity ranking but noted that this success belied significant challenges on the ground.
According to BM Mainul Hasan, director of Institute of Information Technology at the University of Dhaka, the nation has historically not prioritised cybersecurity measures, leaving gaps that are becoming increasingly apparent.
鈥楾hose of us working directly with cybersecurity issues are witnessing that the overall situation is not good at all,鈥� Hasan said, highlighting the disconnect between rankings and real-world preparedness.
He pointed out that Bangladesh had only recently begun digitising many government and private services, which necessitated early stages of developing robust cybersecurity systems.
鈥榃e have just started to transform many government and private services digitally. So, the process to build cybersecurity systems has just started,鈥� he added.
Hasan stressed the urgency of addressing these deficiencies, saying, 鈥楴either do we have enough manpower,聽 nor do institutions in our country give sufficient importance to protecting cyberspaces. It is high time our country built cybersecurity systems that align with international standards. Otherwise, we could face unrecoverable financial losses in the future.鈥�
The ITU in its report said that continued investment was imperative to maintain momentum and close gaps in organisational strategies and international cooperation.
The report said that capacity development was key to building a robust cybersecurity ecosystem.
鈥榃hile the cybersecurity workforce grew 8.7 per cent from 2022 to 2023, the gap between the workers needed and the numbers available has also grown by 12.6 per cent,鈥� it said.
The report further added that to ensure that a domestic cybersecurity industry could flourish, countries needed to ensure that the variety of educational opportunities available at different ages sufficiently prepared students and professionals for their careers.
The fifth edition of the Global Cybersecurity Index or GCI explored the current level of cybersecurity commitment among 193 member states and the state of Palestine.