With regards to internet penetration, Nepal's society is becoming increasingly digital. However, if the larger population is equipped with the skills to use the internet, ensuring one's safety or not is a different matter.
According to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, as of January 2018, Nepal’s Internet penetration was 73.8%. This percentage is expected to increase significantly by the year 2025.
Nepal's Facebook user base had reached 44 percent in June 2021.
With the democratization of technology, cyberspace has become a place where users fall prey to financial scams, information theft and blackmailing.
To hold cyber criminals accountable, the Nepal Police established a cyber-bureau on June 10, 2018. It is located in Bhotahiti, Kathmandu.
Citizens who reside in the valley pay a visit to the bureau to file a complaint whereas those residing outside do it via mail or an in-person visit to the local police station.
The bureau receives many cases related to character assassination and defamation mostly through social media platforms.
Alongside the government, several private organizations are also working in order to make Nepal's online arena secure. Some of them include ThreatNix, Eminence Ways and Cynical Technology.
Suyash Nepal, a cyber security engineer at Nepal’s leading cyber security enterprise ThreatNix, says, “There is still little awareness in the general public about maintaining cyber security. However, in the corporate world, people are undeniably concerned about their companies' data security."
"Although we mostly work with the
corporate sector, we do get inquiries from individuals regarding a third person accessing their social media accounts but we refer those cases to the Cyber Bureau,” Nepal adds.
Setting an easy and repeated password for multiple online platforms increases the vulnerability of the person to get their accounts hacked and manipulated against their will.
Moreover, the use of pirated software, hardware or application also plays a major role in increasing one’s susceptibility to fall victim to invasion of privacy and data
theft.
Inspector Raj Kumar Khadgi at the cyber bureau recommends not making one’s social media profiles public and consulting the cyber bureau for help if anything wrong happens. Hiding or deleting one’s account after an unwanted incident makes the culprit stronger according to him.
