Computer Misuse Act 1990

Computer Misuse Act 1990

1. Recognised Offences

   • Unauthorised Acces to computer Material
     • This offence is the lowest form of offence and many people may have actually commited this crime at one point in their lives. An example of this would be getting someones password for a social medai account and accessing said account, doing this without proper authorisation is illegal, even if you don't change anyhting on the account. Doing this could land the offener up to six months in prison as well as the possibility of a large fine.
   • Unauthorised access to intent to commit or facilitate a crime
     • This offence entails a person gaining access to someone's personal accounts or systems with the sole purpose of commiting a crime/an illegal act. This could mean that they had to guess the password to the account and use a trial and error method or they could have used a program that allows them to get into such accounts. They could do this to attempt to get details from a bank or security of a company etc.Doing this could land you with a five year prison sentence and possibly a fine
   • Making, supplying or obtaining anything which can be used in misuse offences
     • Making - This includes writing and creating a; computer virus, trojans, worms, malicious scripts, malware and other malicious software
     • Supplying - This covers any distribution of any malicious material regardless of if you have created it or got it from somewhere. It is an offense to distribute these things
     • Obtaining - If you obtain any of these files that you know could damage a computer system then you are commiting a crime under the Computer Misuse Act
   • Unauthorised modication of computer material
     • This offence entails the deletion or modification of files in an attempt to sabotage a company, they delete this with the intent to cause damage. This offence also covers introducing viruses to someones system. This offence can carry a penalty of up to five years in prison and the possibility of a fine.