The Ministry of Land has initiated a mandatory 36-hour maintenance shutdown of its digital land service portal (land.gov.bd) to upgrade system security and address potential cyber threats. The suspension, which began late Thursday night, will continue until Saturday afternoon, temporarily halting all online land-related transactions and citizen services across the country.
The decision comes in the wake of an urgent cyber security alert issued by BGD e-GOV CERT on October 22, warning of severe vulnerabilities recently discovered in the widely used PHP programming language. These vulnerabilities have sparked global concerns over the security of government and commercial websites, prompting critical infrastructure operators worldwide to patch their systems and fortify defenses against potential cyber attacks, much like recent precautionary measures taken by Bangladesh Bank.
During this shutdown period, citizens are unable to access a wide array of essential digital services, including mutation applications, land development tax payments, digital records, mouza maps, acquisition files, lease management, and revenue litigation tracking. Informational tools such as the land inheritance calculator, legal guidelines, and downloadable forms are also temporarily offline. The ministry specifically urged users to refrain from making any online payments for land services after Thursday night to avoid transaction failures or security risks.
While expressing regret for the temporary inconvenience, the Ministry of Land has sought cooperation from citizens and stakeholders to ensure the successful completion of the system upgrades. Experts note that as critical national databases digitize millions of sensitive citizen records, proactive maintenance and vulnerability patching are vital to safeguarding state digital assets against increasingly sophisticated global cyber threats.
