Recent trend Of ICT, Uses Of ICT, ICT Policy And Cyber Security At Work

Introduction

Information & Communication Technology (ICT) is the most fundamental part of the modern life. Without using ICT we cannot move a single step now a day and cannot think of our life. In our personal, social, and professional life we use different types Information and Communication Technologies to make our life easier.

Recent Trend of ICT

ICT sector is one of the probable sources of earning foreign currency. It is a matter of great joy that in the coming year Bangladesh will become main player in this sector. If Bangladesh can maintain its present economic growth status in the near future, then ICT sector would be a great welfare sector for this country. In ICT sector slight input is necessary but the output is very much outstanding. This sector is greatly contributing in the development of the economy, education, Banking and Investment, employment, marketing and tourism. The government has been able to understand the economic advantages of this sector and formulated policies to utilize the innovations of information technology. ICT sector has attracted new entrepreneurs to invest more in this sector which will create more job opportunities and will unveil new horizon in the success history of the country. ICT sector has captured a major portion of the service industries like wholesale and retail business, education, healthcare, telecommunication, real estate and publishing house. In recent years the positive trends in the export of software has played a tremendous role in the economy. The demand of IT automation in the domestic market has driven the growth of software industry. It is a good sign that in recent times freelancing, also known as outsourcing has become very popular among the young generation of the country. Students of universities or colleges and young IT professionals are taking different initiatives to acquire clients through using different types of online marketing channels. The ICT sector of Bangladesh has developed tremendously due to the combined effort of Government and skill manpower.

Rapid development in the ICT sector also reflects a rapid growth of efficient and effective which ultimately accelerates the domestic growth. In spite of many challenges such as political unrest, economic crisis and energy shortfall, many big and ambitious projects are continuing to attain digital Bangladesh. If the government acts at the current pace, we would like to expect that within a few years the ICT sector will be the greatest revenue earner sector for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has made an outstanding development in the ICT sector in the last three years. More 160 million people are the potential market for the ICT sector and the spending of the consumers are more than 130 billion USD which is growing at the rate of 6% per year. A2I project of Prime Minister Office is playing a vital role in the ICT sector. This project is mainly working with the innovations in the public services delivery.

• 5 million Students learning from multimedia content developed by 100, 000 teachers
• 105 Digital Talking text books for all visually disabled students
• 103 innovations incubated through Service Innovation Fund
• $28. 15 million earnings for Digital Center Entrepreneurs.

The ICT ministry played a phenomenal role in creating awareness and programs to transform ideas into reality through programs like Digital World, ICT Expo, National Hackathon, Connecting Startup Bangladesh etc.

Uses of ICT

At present ICT is used in most of the spheres of our life. ICT is used in public administration, banking and insurance institutions, law enforcing agencies, and all the public offices. These are described below.

ICT in Education

All the books of primary, secondary and higher secondary level are now available in online. All the books are available in online as e-book. From 2009 all the results of public examinations are published online. People can know the result using the mobile phone. Now students don’t have to go to their colleges, universities or medical colleges for their admission application. They can do their all types of activities regarding admission sitting at home through mobile phone or computer. The registration process and form fiil up of the students are also done online nowadays.

ICT in Business:

Online Banking: Electronic payment system of financial transaction. Now a day’s most of the banking services are provided online.

E-commerce: In Bangladesh online buying and selling of product and services has become very popular in recent years.

Online Shopping: It has become very popular in Bangladesh in recent time period. E-registration and license for new businesses.

ICT in Public Administration

Infrastructure in public administration: Union Digital Centre (UDC) is service center to provide online services of the government to the common people.

E-tax: National Board of Revenue has initiated E-tax system

• E-land recorded systems (E-Porcha).
• Electronic Birth Registration Systems
• National E-services National E-Tathyakosh.

ICT In Agriculture

E-purjee is a great innovation of ICT sector for the farmers of sugarcane

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E-medicine and telemedicine is an innovation of ICT.

ICT Policy of Bangladesh

The first ICT Policy of Bangladesh was formulated in 2002. The ICT Policy has been revised in 2008. The revised ICT Policy has been adopted by the government in April 2009.

Vision of ICT Policy 2009:

• Expand and diversify the use of ICTs to establish a transparent, responsive and accountable government
• Develop skilled human resources
• Enhance social equity
• Ensure cost-effective delivery of citizen-services through public-private partnerships
• Support the national goal of becoming a middle-income country within ten years and join the ranks of the developed countries of the world within thirty years.

Key features of ICT policy 2009:

The ICT Policy 2009 appropriately identified the objectives of ICT in development. The Objectives of the policy are

• Social equity
• Productivity
• Integrity
• Education and research
• Employment
• Strengthening exports
• Healthcare
• Universal access
• Environment, climate and disaster management
• Support to ICTs.

Key features of ICT policy 2009

Social equity: Mainstream social advancement opportunities for disadvantaged groups as an immediate priority to minimize economic disparity and bridge the digital divide for (a) lower income groups, (b) ethnic minorities, (c) women, and (d) persons with disabilities and special needs. Facilitate citizens’ participation in local and national government, and policy making as a broad national agenda. Provide incentives to the private sector and NGO/CSO/CBOs to generate and share locally relevant and local language digital content and online services. Develop and preserve content to bolster culture, heritage and religion. Bring into focus children's issues, including protection of children from harmful digital content.

Productivity: Encourage maximum utilisation of ICT services nationwide to boost productivity of small, medium and micro enterprises and agriculture sector, and focus on innovation and competitiveness. Ensure dissemination and utilisation of latest know-how and market information to increase production capability and supply chain management of agriculture through ICT applications. Ensure better monitoring, skills gap determination, appropriate training and modern enterprise operations to enhance productivity of large enterprises by encouraging immediate implementation of end to end applications (ERP). Ensure sustainable productivity in the service sector through increased automation of operations and management information systems. Encourage e-commerce, e-payments, and e-transactions in general bringing in a new dimension of productivity to the economy at the earliest.

Integrity: Ensure the use of Bangla in all ICT activities. Reduce harassment, time and cost to the public and ensure transparency and accountability in government service delivery by monitoring citizens' charter and making service delivery results public. Establish interconnectivity across government offices for effective data sharing. Build capacity of public functionaries and foster leadership for electronic service delivery. Mandate availability of all public information through electronic means and ensure sustainability of ICT-based citizens’ services delivery. Introduce ICT-based monitoring of planning, implementation and effectiveness of development projects.

Education and Research: Assess skills of ICT professionals and meet gaps with targeted trainings. • Encourage closer collaboration between academia and industry. Extend the reach of ICT literacy throughout the country by incorporating ICT courses in secondary education and technical and vocational education. Enhance the quality and reach of education at all levels with a special focus on Mathematics, Science and English. Ensure ICT Literacy for all in public service. Boost use of ICT tools in all levels of education. Ensure that all universities provide global standard ICT education.

Employment Generation: Provide incentives for investment in local ICT industry. Build institutional capacity for producing greater number of IT professionals in line with domestic and global demands for knowledge workers. Standardize skills for local ICT industry. Facilitate global employment of skilled ICT workforce. Provide financial assistance to ICT professionals for skills development.

Types of cyber security threats

The process of keeping up with new technologies, security trends and threat intelligence is a challenging task. However, it's necessary in order to protect information and other assets from cyber threats, which take many forms.

Ransomware is a type of malware that involves an attacker locking the victim's computer system files – typically through encryption – and demanding a payment to decrypt and unlock them.

Malware is any file or program used to harm a computer user, such as worms, computer viruses, Trojan horses and spyware.

Social Engineering is an attack that relies on human interaction to trick users into breaking security procedures in order to gain sensitive information that is typically protected.

Pishing is a form of fraud where fraudulent emails are sent that resemble emails from reputable sources; however, the intention of these emails is to steal sensitive data, such as credit card or login information.

Conclusion

ICT is a part and parcel in our every sphere of our life. The use of ICT is increasing rapidly in our in recent years. ICT has made easier the process of service delivery systems. It has assisted to reduce corruption in service delivery. At the same time the transparency and accountability has been increased. But there is a risk that ICT is prone to cybercrime. So the cyber security must be ensured from the attack of cybercrimes.