what rights do people have under the computer misuse act 1990?
i need to know for my gcse
Best Answer:
This may help. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-computer-misuse-act-of-1990.htm http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/1996/issue3/akdeniz3.html http://www.lancs.ac.uk/iss/rules/cmisuse.htm It's all a bit weighty for GCSE, so I suppose you could break it down as: the right not to have people as hacking into your system the right to enjoy your software respected and not misused the right not to have strangers gain access to protected files on your computer.
The controversial amendments to the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which were brought onto the statute book by the Police and Justice Act 2006, are finally coming into force this Wednesday 1st October 2008. See: SI 2008 No. 2503 The Police and Justice Act 2006 (Commencement No. 9) Order 2008 The penalties for Section 1 unauthorised computer access sin ("hacking") is increased from 6 months to 2 years, making it eligible for Extradition from foreign countries. The statutory limitation on this Section 1 is abolished (formerly a charge had to be brought no subsequent than 6 months from an arrest, and nothing older than 3 years ago could be considered). The incitement offences appear to have been taken out of Computer Misuse Act and shoved into the inchoate section of the Serious Crime Act 2007, the relevant amendments and appeals section of which also come into force on 1st October. See - SI 2008 No.2504 - The Serious Crime Act 2007 (Commencement No. 3) Order 2008, which brings in the Data Sharing powers, further destroying the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality, with respect to the nominated list of private sector anti-fraud organisations and companies. See The subsequent Home Office data security and privacy disaster ? Sharing all our financial details near private sector "specified anti-fraud organisations" See also the other evils of the Serious Crime Act 2007:- Serious Crime Act 2007 - proof of how useless the Opposition is to Labour's repressive legal fantasies There is also the ill defined attempt to criminalise Denial of Service Attacks, in one short paragraph, something which even the Private Members Bill within the House of Lords, sponsored by the Earl of Northesk, failed to clarify properly back in 2002. - see the Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill 2002 (.pdf) This have world wide scope and a penalty of up to 10 years surrounded by prison. With respect to the forthcoming National identity Register centralised database, the Identity Cards Act 2006 section 29 also attempted to define a Denial of Service attack offence, again beside worldwide scope and up to 10 years in prison, However all that does is duplicate the felony under the amended Computer Misuse Act, and in addition receive it illegal for Trades Unionists or Computer Consultants etc to take industrial action i.e. to jump on trike or work to rule, or to make any kind of mistake through action or omission, e.g. installing a defective software upgrade, which might make it "more difficult or impossible to download information from a computer system run by the Secretary of State". This applies even to peripheral systems which are only connected to the core Home Office National Identity Register, which could be working ok e.g. any industrial activities or computer errors at private sector financial or airline companies which are linked to the NIR Verification Service. See Trades Unions betray their members over Labour ID Card scheme The other controversial amendment still seem to criminalise computer security research and defence software tools, making it illegal to download , write, amend or modify anything which could be used to commit a computer hack or denial of service attack, regardless of actual malicious intent, even for exclusive use on your own computer system. This will do nothing to deter the criminals who use such tools maliciously, but it will drive out statute abiding computer security researchers from the UK. Is the internet and e-commerce and electronic funds transfer and Information technology security mostly, not important enough to deserve a proper, full, new Computer Misuse Act, brought up to date for the converging internet, telecomms and broadcast technology ? Instead we enjoy had a delayed, hodge podge of amendments to schedules ad sub clauses, across three other Acts of Parliament, none of which be the main thrust of those Bills, and which were consequently not debated or scrutinised surrounded by any depth, before being rubber stamped through. Hope this helps.
