Have govt agency to register website domain: House panel

Kathmandu, June 26

Parliament’s Development and Technology Committee has directed the government to make arrangement for registering the names of the government website domain by a government agency.

Citing the weak cyber security, the House panel asked the government and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to do the job, which was so far been performed by the private sector service providers, from the government agency.

After holding discussion with the Minister for Communication and Information Technology and high officials on ‘Cyber-crime and security’ on Friday afternoon, the committee had directed the government and line ministry to conduct the mandatory security audit of the government websites and information technology service provider companies.

Likewise, it directed the government to create legal provision to download all the web-based and social networking apps only after the approval of the respective regulator of the sector.

“Create a provision to allow the download only after the regulator’s assurance that the application is appropriate in terms of security, privacy and utility,” read the decision of the committee.

It directed the government to effectively implement the programme to expand the high-speed broadband internet service to the ward offices, health institutions and secondary schools across the country.

The committee asked for the proper use of government documents and directed the government and the ministry to publish government letters, documents, information and notices only through the official website and emails.

Likewise, it asked to enhance the capacity of the responsible government officials in terms of the information technology and use of electronic devices.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 27 June 2020.