Kathmandu, Dec 10: Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said the government is serious and sensitive towards cyber security, as it is a new dimension of national security.
Inaugurating a cyber security research hub established at the Islington College to conduct research on cyber security and digital forensic here Sunday, Minister Sharma reiterated that cyber security was in the national priority of the government.
The hub established at the cost of Rs 250 million is the first educational research centre on cyber security in the country, according to the College
Sharma asserted, “Cyber security is becoming very important with the development and expansion of information and technology. It is however becoming a huge challenge all over the world at present. Works such as protecting personal data to keep country’s sovereignty intact have been increasingly important.”
She informed that the government launched Nepal Cyber Security Policy-2080 on August 8 this year with an objective to minimize the damage caused by cyber attacks on the information technology system as well as to prevent potential attacks.
The policy, according to the Minister, has put forward nine strategies and thus the government was working towards legal and structural arrangements for it.
Minister Sharma shared that draft bill on cyber security was being formulated and process to establish National Cyber Centre was forwarded.
After she assumed her office, she had been prioritizing cyber security, thereby setting up the security operation centre at the ministry and round-the-clock monitoring of the government systems hosted at GIDC (Government Integrated Data Centre) and Gcloud was put in place.
After that, the cases of attacks on the government information system started to decrease, claimed the Minister. She further informed that the Tribhuvan University Engineering Institute was preparing course for Masters Level to teach cyber security in the universities in Nepal.
