James Delahunty
3 Aug 2011 23:59
UK's Metropolitan Police reminds potential hacktivists that the actions are a crime and they will be prosecuted.
Using its official Twitter account, the Met Police directed users toward a notice that stated defacing website,s carrying out denial of service attacks and stealing information from servers is illegal in the UK. It also said that attacks aimed at targets outside the UK can be prosecuted within the country.
The UK's warning comes just days after the arrest of another teenager in an investigation into attacks against the Soca website, the UK's agency for investigation serious cyber crimes.
Across the world recently, more alleged members of hacker groups have been arrested for similar activities. Law enforcement agencies are among the top targets of such attacks, usually in response to arrests that have been made.
Metropolitan Police
The investigation into the criminal activity of so-called "hacktivist" groups #Anonymous and #LulzSec continues. We want to remind people of the law in this area:
The Law Against Computer Misuse
Anyone considering accessing a computer without authority should understand that such acts are unlawful and can carry a term of imprisonment.
Under UK legislation, it is an offence if a person acts from within the UK upon a computer anywhere else in the world. It is also an offence if someone anywhere else in the world to criminally affect a computer within the UK.
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 states that anyone who gains unauthorised access to (or modifies) computer material may be liable to up to 2 years in prison (Section 1). It also says that anyone who gains unauthorised access to a computer and does an act
(a) to impair the operation of any computer;
(b) to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in a computer, or
(c) to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data;
…may be imprisoned for up to 10 years upon conviction (Section 3).
These offences cover the acts of unauthorised access to personal accounts, Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Attacks and intrusive hacks where data is taken or systems changed.
Other jurisdictions have similar law.