Cyber threats rising in Bangladesh: PwC official

Cyber threats are increasingly becoming a problem for Bangladesh as the country is moving fast with new digital initiatives.

“We are here to help Bangladeshi companies anticipate, respond and manage these risks in the most effective manner,” Deepak Kapoor, chairman of PwC Bangladesh, told The Daily Star in an interview yesterday.

Cybersecurity has become a common word in Bangladesh after the recent spate of frauds in the banking sector.

In February, six fraudsters, including one foreign national, forged bank cards to steal about Tk 25 lakh from ATMs and point-of-sales terminals.

After that came the news of a cyber heist of $101 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The theft also took place in February.

“Cybersecurity has become a front-and-centre challenge for both the private and public sectors and the variables to manage the risks are getting increasingly complex. It is an area in Bangladesh that could give us a quantum leap.”

PwC has plenty of expertise in the area of cyber forensics, which is the process of extracting information from computers to serve as digital evidence for civil purposes or, in many cases, to prove and legally prosecute criminals.

“The scope of work is very high in Bangladesh as PwC has lots of expertise in this area,” said Kapoor, who has been with the British professional services firm since 1978.

The firm has set up its first Bangladesh office in the capital’s Gulshan area, which was inaugurated by Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday.

“Since the Bangladesh economy is continuing to grow from strength-to-strength, we felt this was the right time for a full-fledged PwC office in Dhaka, offering all PwC services, across various industry verticals.”

PwC is organised into three service lines: assurance, advisory and tax.

Assurance services provide independent and professional opinions that reduce information risk (risk from incorrect information).

Advisory services involve mainly consulting activities on strategy, performance improvement, business recovery, corporate finance, business valuation, sustainability and crisis management.

Tax services involve international tax planning and compliance with local tax laws, customs, human resource consulting, legal services and transfer pricing.

PwC has set a target to recruit 500 local professionals in the next five years to serve the growing need of Bangladeshi companies as well as the government entities. 

“We look forward to playing a larger role in improving the quality of life of the people of Bangladesh, being able to open new opportunities for local business as well as the talented workforce.”

In Bangladesh, the firm sees “immense potential” in several areas, such as tax advisory, forensics, cybersecurity, digital and infrastructure sector.

Kapoor said the South Asian countries suffer from a lack of quality infrastructure; the countries also suffer from over-regulations and that is where the PwC can help.

Mamun Rashid, managing partner of PwC Bangladesh, said PwC is also keen on work with the reform programmes of the government and the public-private partnership.

British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Alison Blake and Deputy Chief of Mission of US Embassy in Dhaka David Meale were present.

Headquartered in London, PwC has offices in 776 cities across 157 countries. The firm logged in $35.4 billion as revenue in the year that ended on June 30, 2015.