Data security a major challenge in post-Covid Bangladesh: WhiteBoard

The pace at which people access digital services in Bangladesh has picked up since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, giving rise to data management challenges in the post-Covid period, according to policy-based magazine WhiteBoard.

WhiteBoard, published by the ruling Awami League's Research Wing Centre for Research & Information (CRI), is the first of its kind in Bangladesh, dedicated to covering the gamut of policy issues.

The second issue of WhiteBoard has hit the market, CRI said today.

"In terms of personal data, we are faced with a different challenge. Anita Ghazi Rahman and Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury examine how data protection and data security are more crucial than ever, as the "new normal" has led to unprecedented amounts of personal information being generated by users," said Radwan Mujib Siddiq, editor-in-chief of the quarterly, in the editorial note.

Reflecting on the countrywide digital transformation in every sphere from online tax return filing to utility payment, Anita Ghazi Rahman and Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury wrote, "The pace of all of this has accelerated since the Covid-19 crisis began, with Bangladeshis throughout the country now more eager than ever to be part of the digital world."

Currently, there is no data localisation requirement under Bangladeshi law.

As a matter of general practice, they said, it is permitted to store data on a cloud or servers located outside Bangladesh; this is now common industry practice.

But for sensitive data, they said, such a blanket approach is neither safe nor conducive to promoting the local data-oriented industry.

They mentioned that a general requirement related to processing certain categories of data within Bangladesh is needed.

Such a framework must protect and enable the data-driven digital economy on which post-Covid-19 Bangladesh is desperately reliant, they further said.

Earlier, the quarterly magazine in its first issue highlighted the policies and strategies chalked out by the Father of the Nation that still resonates with the country's growth and development.

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