Bharat Koirala

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POKHARA: Two employees have been suspended on the charge of hacking computer data after entering into the Pokhara University Office of the Controller of the Examinations, the University said today.

The University Registrar Govinda Sharma suspended the duo on Monday.

According to Sharma, University’s Engineering Department Deputy Administrator (Technical) Amrit Thapa and Health and Allied Sciences Office, office assistant Jeevan Phuyal have been suspended.

“After the incident, we filed an FIR (First Incident Report) against the duo at the Kaski District Police Office.”

“Some passwords of the computers have been hacked, some of the data from the computers are missing, police are investigating into the incident,” Sharma said.

Earlier, on August 21, two employees along with former PU graduate had entered into the University Office of the Controller of the Examinations in the pretext of taking a measurement of furniture required in the office.

A security guard stationed there at the time of the incident obliged them and opened the padlocks.

With the help of the university’s graduate, Thapa got excess into the important data related to examinations of the university. However, the motive behind hacking the data was unclear, Sharma shared.

According to PU Examination Controller Dr Bharat Raj Dhungana, all the computers in the unit had passwords but after the incident passwords were no longer required to open computers.

Subsequently, we launched an internal enquiry, Dhunga said.

He further said, “After observing the CCTV footage and consultation with the security guard, we found out that three persons had entered into the confidential unit of the Engineering Department.”

Nepal Police’s CIB (Central Investigation Bureau) has taken all the computers and CCTV footage for further investigation, Dhungana added.

“These computers had data related to the University’s Central Department and engineering affiliated colleges since the starting phase of the university.”

“Data related to graduate students’ transcript were stored in these computers,” Dhungana added.

He further said, the motive behind hacking of data was to manipulate the transcripts of the students and leak examinations papers.

The university said, “The backup data are safe with us in our system.”

Meanwhile, Pokhara University Independent Student Union’s Chairman Sunil Timilsina has urged the police to find the culprits and book them under the existing laws.

Earlier, police had arrested Phuyal after the incident, however, Thapa is at large.

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