Kathmandu, November 4

The government has said National Cyber Security Monitoring Centre, established three months ago on July 3, has started working effectively to alert the government bodies concerned about possible cyber security threats.

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, issuing a press release today, said the NCSMC had been continuously monitoring the gateway router of the government’s integrated data centre. It further said it had been monitoring the government’s official DNS servers, firewall application, government’s official mail server, protocol request, source IP address and various electronic services hosted through government integrated data centre.

The NCSMC was established with the aim of closely monitoring and foiling possible cyber attacks and increasing cyber security of government agencies. It is an authorised body for observing the government’s important sites, web applications and services.

The press release has sought nine points for enhancing cyber security in the country. It has also asked Information Technology Emergency Response Group under MoCIT  to complete homework for the country to join the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team , an organisation that helps create safe and reliable cyber space in the Asia Pacific Region by next year. The ministry has also asked government bodies concerned to start working to formulate cyber security rules of government bodies as per their requirements. Furthermore, the ministry is also planning to appoint at least one cyber communication officer at each and every government office.

The press release states that the government should now establish a national cyber forensic centre to promote NCSMC as one of the world-class organisations.

Similarly, the ministry has proposed to build a Cyber Disaster Recovery Centre to retrieve important government documents and information that get destroyed or corrupted for some reasons. It further states that necessary regulations should be formulated to purchase advanced electronic devices from abroad in a bid to enhance cyber security system.