Kathmandu, February 7
Nepalese government spokesman, Minister of Information and Communication Technologies Rekha Sharma says the government does not have keys to the electronic data centers where information collected from the public is kept.
Sharma’s comment further exposes Nepal’s poor cybersecurity state who is remembered for government websites are frequently hacked.
Inauguration of the new edition of the can infotech at an annual information technology expo in Kathmandu on Tuesday, Minister Sharma conceded that there are serious questions about the security of government data.
“We talk a lot about nationality, but how can we preserve it in terms of data security”, he questioned, “The ministries are using sensitive software programs, but we don’t know where their keys are”. [to the data centres] are.”
He also said that many skilled workers from Nepal are going abroad while the government has been forced to recruit such people from other countries.
However, the minister said the government is working hard to ensure that the IT sector is well managed, adding that a new bill on the sector is being drafted.
