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BB website down amid global PHP cyber threat
Published : Thursday, 22 October, 2026 at 7:58 PM
Observer Online Report
Collected Photo
The official website of Bangladesh Bank (BB) has been temporarily taken offline to avert potential cyber attacks following the detection of two critical security vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language.
Efforts are currently underway to assess the security risks and restore the website at the earliest, central bank officials said on Thursday (October 22).
A Bangladesh Bank official clarified that this is not an isolated issue for the central bank, but rather a precautionary measure aligned with global responses to the PHP vulnerability. The portal will be reactivated once the risk analysis is completed.
Bangladesh Bank Spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan confirmed that the website was shut down due to an emergency security issue.
Sources within the central bank noted that IT specialists are actively working to identify and patch the security flaws. A few commercial banks utilizing PHP-based websites have also taken their platforms offline temporarily as a precautionary step.
According to a report by international news agency AFP, attackers can exploit these specific PHP vulnerabilities to remotely execute unauthorized commands on servers without requiring passwords. This poses severe risks to server files, databases, and sensitive information.
Consequently, government agencies and digital service platforms in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium have also implemented similar preventive measures.
However, experts clarified that not all websites built on PHP are vulnerable, as the degree of risk depends on the specific version in use, security updates applied, and overall server security configurations.
Officials from the government's Aspire to Innovate (a2i) program stated that around 36,500 websites under the National Portal Framework are not built on PHP and are therefore not directly exposed to this specific vulnerability. Nevertheless, the technology stacks of other public sector websites are being audited.
In response to the threat, the government's cyber security agency, BGD e-Gov CIRT, issued a security alert advising relevant organizations to identify PHP versions running on their servers and apply necessary security patches immediately. The agency recommended limiting server access and monitoring unauthorized connections if immediate patching is not feasible.
-SA
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Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
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Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Advertisement: 41053012; 01793317829, 01550707291, E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Online: email: [email protected] 41053014; 01550707297 Advertisement: 01550707296
