On Wednesday, a family member of a married woman from Butwal came with a problem to the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police, at Bhotahity.

The 26-year old woman, who had left her home to go to her maternal uncle’s, was contactless for the past five days. Family members said she doesn’t receive calls on her cell phone while it showed her online. Then they came to the bureau seeking its help to locate her.

The bureau registered the complaint, but it didn’t have the jurisdiction to mount a search for the girl. They tried to trace her location but to no avail.

In another case, a video of harassment of a transgender person in Bhaktapur went viral on social media a year ago. The victim’s friends and family members came with a complaint to the cyber bureau, requesting them to nab the harassers and take legal action against them, which is not the bureau’s job.

In a similar case, at least half a dozen people came to the bureau asking it to nab people caught in a video misbehaving, which went viral on social media.

“These are the most common problems we get in our bureau and we have to devote most of our time to such issues,” said Pashupati Kumar Ray, spokesperson for the bureau. “In these cases we can only help them technically, but we are not responsible for searching for the missing girl or the harassers.”

Ray said the bureau gives technical assistance as per its capacity, and sends complaints to the local police where the incident happened. Then the police units in their respective areas take up the issues such as searching for the missing persons or taking action against those involved in misconduct or misbehaviour.

According to the bureau, out of the nearly 70 daily complaints it gets, nearly 50 are petty crimes, many of them unrelated to the bureau. Officials say many people are unaware of the actual problems the cyber bureau addresses. Of the total complaints, nearly 90 percent are related to hacking of email, and social media passwords, and other random and general issues even though the bureau is struggling to tackle complex cyber cases amid lack of specialised technical analysis, lack of human resources, certified experts, and people trained and resourced to deal with cyber crimes.

Officials say they have not been able to resolve various cyber crimes due to a lack of cyber laws and cyber security policies even though a majority of the country's population is habituated to using the internet in their daily lives and they are vulnerable to cyber attacks at any given time.

In addition, experts say, the larger cyber security problem is the country’s vulnerability to threats. Last year at the end of January, about 1,500 government websites were shut down, raising questions over the cybersecurity infrastructure of Nepal.

“Most of the complaints we get are petty ones such as deactivating fake IDs and recovering hacked accounts, which consume most of our time and energy in office,” said Senior Superintendent Nabinda Aryal, chief of the bureau. “Also, many people come to our office with issues that can be solved by the local police office.”

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts say these problems emerge due to the shortsightedness of the security agencies in terms of hacking of IDs and passwords of emails and social media.

“If the security agencies arranged for a separate unit at the district police office to look after such cases, people would not come to Kathmandu,” said ICT expert Satish Krishna Kharel.

“People across the country have access to the internet, and anyone can fall victim to it,” Kharel said. “But it’s only the Kathmandu-based cyber bureau that is tasked to solve the problems. This system has to change.”

The bureau registered 4,646 cases of cyber crimes last fiscal year, which included incidents like password hacking, use of fake identity on social media, hate speeches and defamation on social media, and other information technology-related frauds. Officials said most of the complainants sought help in recovering the hacked passwords, deletion of fake IDs, and for searching and nabbing their online harasser.

Bureau officials said that one of the major reasons why the country’s only cyber bureau hasn’t been able to do sufficient work is because it has inadequate technical human resources who are engaged in solving minor personal problems of visitors. They also said they haven’t been able to give sufficient time for serious cyber attacks which are threats to not only individuals but also the country. Among the bureau’s 84 personnel at present, only 20 are technical staff.

“We have 64 officials who do the administrative tasks, but we need more personnel who are capable of handling complex cyber crimes,” said chief Aryal.

There were 38.38 million internet subscribers in the country as of mid-October 2022, according to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority.

Cyber experts say the bureau is ineffective in investigating critical issues such as cyber crimes related to networks, systems, and devices. Other tasks the bureau is supposed to handle are forensic analysis of devices such as computers, phones, and other electronic equipment; ensuring cyber security and resolving data breaches, but the unit hasn’t been as effective as it should have been on that. Other works like developing cybersecurity policies, and guidelines too are largely neglected.

“People have expectations that the cyber bureau can solve each and every problem promptly,” Aryal said. “But the administrative offices, branches of social media companies or anything we use on the internet, are all located abroad, and we can’t promptly contact them to resolve the issues immediately.”