The Bangladesh Bank website resumed operations at 8:00am on Sunday (October 25), three days after being temporarily taken offline as a precaution against potential cyberattacks linked to two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a widely used programming language.
The central bank's website had remained inaccessible since Thursday (October 22), following a global cybersecurity alert. It was restored after IT specialists completed a security assessment and took necessary preventive measures.
Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan confirmed the restoration, saying the website had been temporarily shut down over urgent security concerns.
Central bank sources said the decision was part of broader precautionary measures taken in response to the global alert, rather than an isolated technical disruption.
IT specialists worked to assess potential risks and address security concerns before bringing the website back online. Several other banks using PHP-based systems also reportedly suspended their websites temporarily as a precaution.
According to AFP, the vulnerabilities could potentially allow attackers to execute unauthorised commands remotely on affected servers without authentication, putting server files, databases and sensitive information at risk.
The security concerns reportedly prompted government institutions and digital service providers in several European countries, including France, the Netherlands and Belgium, to take precautionary measures.
However, cybersecurity experts noted that not all websites built using PHP were necessarily vulnerable. The level of exposure depends on several factors, including the PHP version in use, installed security updates and existing server protection mechanisms.
Meanwhile, officials from the government's Aspire to Innovate (a2i) programme said nearly 36,500 websites operating under the National Portal Framework were not developed using PHP and therefore were not directly exposed to the reported vulnerabilities.
Nevertheless, technical assessments were carried out on other government websites as a precaution.
The Bangladesh e-Government Computer Incident Response Team (BGD e-GOV CIRT) also issued a cybersecurity alert, advising organisations to review their PHP versions and install the necessary security patches.
For organisations unable to apply updates immediately, the agency recommended restricting server access and closely monitoring suspicious or unauthorised connections.
FP/MIB
