DBA Research Proposal Assignment on Banking Sector (GC01380)

DBA Research Proposal

Research topic: There is no existing great wall in cybersecurity arrangements in developing countries: an inquiry on banking sector in Bangladesh

Overview of the research

Cyber-security has now been a complex transnational issue due to the growing proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the increasing opportunity for globalization (Kundi and Nawaz, 2016). A study by Norton in 2011 revealed that threats to cyberspace have been increasing dramatically more than ever before, whereas now about 431 million adult victims globally in a year- or 1 million cybercrime victims every day, and 14 adult victims every second (Natarajan, 2016). Another study by United Nations (2011) disclosed that cybercrime is now one of the bigger global issues that affect millions of people, governments of every nation, and countless businesses losing trillion dollars in a year through intellectual property, identify thefts and online fraud.

The banking sector of Bangladesh has been facing gradually increasing cyber and technology-related crimes (Zamir, 2016). Although the banking sector in Bangladesh is taking the opportunity of e-banking technology advancement, the misuse of information technology has increased the undesirable consequences of diverse cybercrimes (Ahmed, 2016). In addition, the increased use of ICTs, dependency of institutions and individuals on the internet are raising cybercrime in the financial sector of Bangladesh (Iqbal, 2018). Thus, making the banking sector in Bangladesh free from cybercrimes is now one of the most important aspects (Rahman, 2016). The proposed study aims to assess the cyber-crime scenario and develop a conceptual framework about the problems of cyber-crime. Then, the proposed study aims to represent the concept of basic crimes that occurred in the banking sector of Bangladesh including.

Literature review

The term ‘cybercrime’ is defined by experts in different ways. According to Douglas and Loader (2000), cybercrime refers to computer facilitated activities accompanied online either illicitly or illegally. Karim (2016) said cybercrime in the banking sector is known as banking fraud that includes illegal money transfer, money removal from one account to another account. Moore, Clayton and Anderson (2009 classified cybercrimes into four main categories: cyber-pornography, cyber-trespass, cyber-violence, and cyber-deceptions. Cybercrime in the banking sector is classified under cyber-deception (Anderson and Barton, 2012).

Cybercrime is now increasingly becoming a major problem for the banking sector of Bangladesh. Most importantly, after the recent cyber heist of $101 million from the account of Bangladesh Bank in 2016, cybersecurity has been a common word in the mouth of people in Bangladesh. As the variables to manage the risks are getting increasingly complex, cybersecurity has now been a front-and-center challenge for both public and private banking sectors of Bangladesh (Rahman, 2016). A report published by The Economist (2017) stated that the banking sectors in Bangladesh, mainly the state-owned banks, are still hesitant to implement full-scale security measures. The regulators are also slow to develop effective plans to tackle major cyber-attacks if and when they occur (Karim, 2016). Although there are laws to recover consumers’ money, security experts are concerned that the successful escalating attacks can cause major bank insolvents (Rahman, 2016).

Another study by Daily Sun (2017) stated that cyber threats are the key challenges for the digitization of financial institutions, especially in developing countries like Bangladesh. This is because the weaker technical capability in developing countries widespread the danger of cybercrimes. Cybercriminals take digital anonymity advantages of the internet to conduct despicable activities and steal money by hacking weaker ICT systems of banks. Jones (2018) said the main reason for this vulnerability is the serious lack of skilled ICT manpower to overcome the challenges of cybercrimes. Salim (2005) stated that lack of integrated computer security system, as well as education on computer security, make seriously vulnerable the financial institutions in Bangladesh that create the necessity of collaboration, cooperation and investment for security and development of secured culture in the banking sector of developing countries including Bangladesh. The educational institutions are also reluctant to upgrade their curricula in line with the global standard and thriving digitization in the banking sector (Agrawal, 2016). In short, the key forces that are making cybersecurity challenging in the banking sector of Bangladesh are cross-border data exchanges, the use of third-party vendors, the increased use of mobile technologies, evolving sophisticated technologies, and the adoption of the internet.

The massive growth of sensitive data stored online is the key target of cybercriminals and hackers. The so-called two-factor authentication process can be the bullet-proof way to secure the bank accounts of consumers. In this process, banks can send a temporary code to the mobile phone of individual consumers to log in to the account. This means the cybercriminals and hackers need access to both the consumer mobile phone and the computer to capture the account of consumers. However, it is very often seen that major banks in Bangladesh still could not develop this two-factor authentication process for consumer accounts. To overcome these challenges, NewAge (2017) suggested that banking in Bangladesh use big data analysis for identifying and reacting to both internal and external security risks. Biometric security technologies can be used for location and physical-based identification and to ensure that the right individuals access data. Ahmed (2016) suggested the financial institution in Bangladesh adhere to privacy concerns among employees and consumers to secure consumer personal and account information, and cybersecurity policies and programs.

Research questions/aims

Aims

The proposed study aims to assess the cyber-crime scenarios and electronic crimes in the banking sector of Bangladesh and to take some precautionary measures and develop a conceptual framework about the problems of cyber-crime. Then, the proposed study aims to represent the concept of basic crimes that occurred in the banking sector of Bangladesh.

Objectives

To identify cybercrimes and electronic crimes faced and might be faced in the future by the banking sector in developing countries including Bangladesh
To build awareness for the banking sector of developing countries (including Bangladesh) at the international policy level with the current situations as well as challenges regarding cybersecurity
To explore options for the banking sector in developing countries (including Bangladesh) for global responses to rising cybercrime
To identify the practice policies and initiatives in place across the world for the financial institutions in developing countries (including Bangladesh) to build a cybersecurity culture?
To suggest precautionary measures for the banking sector of developing countries to develop a conceptual framework about cybercrime challenges

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