Nepal's new Cyber Law Nepal passed The Electronic Transaction and Digital Signature Act 2004, also known as Cyber law,
but is the legislation strong enough? The Cyber Law received royal assent from His Majesty King Gyanendra last week. The law is
forecasted to be a landmark legislation for the development of IT industry in Nepal. Conducts such as hacking, deleting data, stealing e-document, software piracy and posting
defamatory information are capable of criminal and civil sanctioning under the new Cyber law. The
government can punish cyber offenders with up to five years of imprisonment and/or a fine of up to
Rs.50, 000. However, much depends on the severity of the crime. Before the Cyber Law was passed, the government dealt with cyber crimes under the Public Offence
Act. The law has tightened the security for banking transactions through electronic means, which should
boost the economic activities across the Internet via Nepal. The law has also made a new judicial
body to listen to complaints, cases and matters concerning cyber crime. Before the law was passed, Nepal Police dealt with all cyber crime related matters but they were
not aware about the technical aspect of the cyber crime, which meant that the sanctions were not
effective and relative to the crime. This is the first Cyber Law in Nepal. Previously there were no clear provisions to regulate online
cyber law but the introduction of the new Cyber Law by the Government will allow it to introduce
new provisions under the Act in order to control and regulate the criminal activities apparent in
Nepal's cyber environment. |
