They told BSS yesterday that Bangladesh, which is moving satisfactorily towards utilising latest technologies in encouraging investment in education, infrastructure and poverty reduction, might fall in the ensnare of cyber crimes unless proper monitoring system is introduced with the support of latest equipment.

They said the law enforcement agencies looking at national interest and security found that the criminals, in the absence of proper monitoring, blasted bombs at 503 places of the country at a time on August 17 in 2005 by using the latest technology.

The agencies also found that the whole operation was planned, coordinated and implemented through cellphone network.

The experts pointed out that all the countries of the world developed vigilance system whenever they have adopted new technologies.

All the developed countries, including the USA, the UK, Germany, France and Australia, have strong cyber-policing system to prevent the criminals in doing harm to the people by using the latest technology.

There are many international bodies, including the US-based Communication Assistance to Law Enforcing Agencies and the Europe-based European Telecommunication Standard Institute, which formulate and help implement regulations in this regard, the experts said.

They said Bangladesh is lagging behind in the context of checking cyber crimes compared to the neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Singapore.

During the past years other than amending some laws, Bangladesh has not taken any strong action to curb cyber crimes, the experts said, adding the initiatives taken to strengthen vigilance against cyber crimes in the country are not satisfactory.

They said the smugglers are using mobile phones to monitor the movements of BDR patrol to commit their crimes.

The experts said the enactment of Telecommunication Law-2001 was a step towards curbing cyber crimes but because of the vested quarters, the law could not be implemented properly.

They are of the opinion that people involved in cyber crimes can only be taken to task by empowering the authorities concerned for checking the cyber crimes.

The BTRC has to play a strong role in curbing cyber crimes as people of the country are in favour of bringing cyber criminals to book before they commit crimes like serial bombing, smuggling out national resources and extortion.