Janata Bank website comes under cyberattack

The website of state-owned Janata Bank has come under a cyberattack despite being taken offline in advance as a precaution following a global cybersecurity alert. The bank’s information technology (IT) team is working to fix security vulnerabilities after signs of spam and malicious activity were detected in at least two places on the website. As a result, the site remained inaccessible until 11:30am on Sunday (October 25), even after banking operations resumed following the holiday break.

A senior official from Janata Bank’s IT department said evidence of attacks had been found in two areas of the website. The team was working to identify the vulnerabilities and restore the site’s security. They hoped to make the website fully secure and operational by the end of Sunday, the official added.

No official comment was available from the bank, as the post of managing director (MD) remains vacant. On October 19, the government cancelled the remaining tenure of Janata Bank’s then managing director, Mojibur Rahman. A five-day holiday across the banking sector, combining Durga Puja and the weekly holidays, began the following day.

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and relevant international organisations issued a joint alert on October 21 warning of potential global cyberattacks after two serious security vulnerabilities were identified in PHP, a widely used programming language.

The alert warned that hackers could exploit the vulnerabilities to execute malicious code remotely on affected servers. It advised temporarily disconnecting vulnerable applications from the internet if security patches or updates could not be installed promptly.

In response to the warning, the websites of Bangladesh Bank and Janata Bank were temporarily taken offline from last Thursday as an additional security measure. Bangladesh Bank’s website resumed normal operation on Sunday after the holiday break, but Janata Bank’s site could not be restored because of malware infection and security vulnerabilities.