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UK To Strengthen Cybercrime Laws
John Stith
Staff Writer
2006-01-31
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One of the biggest problems with cybercrime in the UK remains the law. Back in 1990, the government passed the Computer Misuse Act. Unfortunately, the government has failed to keep up with changes in cybercrime and in so doing leaves many individuals and businesses with no real legal protection to fend off many attacks.
Parliament has been perusing a Police and Justice Bill, which would add too and toughen up the existing laws. The bill would make it illegal to make unauthorized modifications to computers with a penalty of ten years in prison.
The hackers could see their sentences increase anywhere from six months to two years for gaining unauthorized access to a system.
The importance of this legislation is high as currently, the UK has lousy cybercrime laws on the books. Earlier in the year, charges were dropped against a teenager for assaulting his boss with an email denial-of-service email attack because the existing laws didn't cover such things. Then, in December, another case occurred in which the UK citizen took his cybercrime case the EU court and received satisfaction. The UK courts couldn't deal with the problem.
While the UK has done a number of things to increase their control over communication, one major thing they've yet to do is to pass reasonable laws that take the latest technology into account. Hopefully, this new pending legislation will do that.
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About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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