Most people are now comfortable with the concept of “cyber crime” and know that “hacking is an offence”, but few people are really aware of precisely what the offence is and the potential sentences that are available. As computer crime, and indeed the use of computers in general, is a very fast moving area, attempts at making legislation future-proof have been attempted and have failed. It is interesting to consider how the law has evolved in this regard.
Over the last few days, the hacking group, “Anonymous” have been in the public eye for a variety of fairly high-profile acts. However, despite the current media focus on this group, people don’t generally seem to know too much about them or their activities.
Back in the dark days of the “2011 Riots”, there was significant public protestation regarding the sentences given to two men convicted of inciting others to riot, using Facebook. This may have been the point where the extent to which activity on a computer “matters” in the physical world seeped into the public consciousness. People can be convicted of computer based offences, without being the geeky cartoon hacker that fills the imagination.
David Cook - CyberSolicitor 