The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) issued instructions to banks operating in the local market to take precautionary measures to counter the ransomware internet virus, which hit 70 countries around the world in a series of cyber attacks.
CBE officials held a meeting with the heads of information technology sectors in the banks to guide them to implement protection measures for their information systems against piracy and cyber attacks.
Bank heads told al-Masry al-Youm that the instructions included informing bank employees about the severity of this type of cyber attack, not to open e-mail attachments from non-trusted sources and to ensure that emails are free of malicious programs through special protection programs.
The instructions also include periodically backing up data on an external device separate from the network, to be restored correctly in case of infection.
Ashraf al-Qadi, the head and managing director of the United Bank, said banks have started implementing the CBE’s instructions to confront any acts of piracy on electronic programs and protect its internal systems and networks.
Qadi said in statements to al-Masry al-Youm that among the measures is updating Microsoft’s Windows programs at banks, not to open anonymous files sent by e-mail from customers and companies to banks and to update computers.
Engineer Huda Mamdouh, an IT expert at a private bank, said her bank is committed to the CBE’s measures to keep a copy of the data on external machines for retrieval at any time.
She said banks are currently taking several measures to make sure that there is a Microsoft update package to close the gap exploited by cyber attacks, adding that the ransomware spreads via emails sent to bank employees with malicious software attached that contains the virus.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
