Computer Misuse Act
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 is a law passed by the British government. It was introduced to try to fight the growing threat of hackers and hacking.
The law has three parts. In the U.K., it is now a crime to
- Access a computer without permission
- Access a computer without permission, hoping to break, change or copy files
- Change, break or copy files without permission
People who break this law can be jailed for up to 6 months.
It is very difficult to prove that people have committed any of these offences so the law has not worked very well. There have been very few successful prosecutions.
