ANKIT ADHIKARI (writer) - The number of registered cyber crimes in Kathmandu, especially through
social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, has undergone a
dramatic 300
percent growth over the last two fiscal years.
Data from the Metropolitan Police Crime Investigation Division (MPCID)
showed the number of registered Facebook offenses rose by three times
from the fiscal year 2010/11 to 2011/12. When tallied with the number of
cyber crime cases in 2009/10, the data showed an astounding growth of
nearly 12 times.
The steady increase in the popularity of social networking sites,
particularly Facebook, has led to the rise in the number of
misdemeanours that range from password hacking to creating fake user
accounts for defamation, said police.
However, according to SSP Devendra Subedi, MPCID in-charge, the number
of registered cases is still very low, compared to the assumed rate of
cyber offenses that occur in the city. “Owing to a lack of awareness,
the number of individuals taking their cyber plight to the police is
very low, regardless of the growth that has been noticed lately,” said
Subedi, addressing a programme on Tuesday. While just three cases of
cyber crime were registered at the MPCID in 2009/10, the number rose to
12 the next year, followed by 36 in 2011/12.
The nature of crime complaints, police said, are usually about the
tagging of nude photographs on Facebook, erroneous postage of personal
telephone numbers, personal defamation through hacked accounts and the
misuse of photographs posted on Facebook. Of all the cyber crime cases
registered, almost 70 percent are directly related to Facebook, showed
MPCID data.
Meanwhile, police are having a difficult time dealing with these cases,
as there are no proper guidelines or effective national policy in place
to prosecute those involved in cyber crime through social networking.
“Tracking down the IP addresses, we make our way to the computer used
for the crime,” said SSP Subedi. “When the computer turns out to be at a
public cyber cafe, all efforts become useless.”
In most cases, after receiving complaints, police delete the respective
fake Facebook account in coordination with the Nepal Telecommunications
Authority and Internet Service Providers. In some cases, police have
also emailed Facebook headquarters in the United States for specific
action.
“Given the growing popularity of networking sites, the problem islikely
to be aggravated. Besides enhancing our probe mechanism, we need to
focus on increasing public awareness of the matter,” said Subedi.
Among other kinds of registered cyber crime cases are email threats,
illegal data access, hacks, websitedisputes and web SMS threats.
Sources:- ekantipur.com
