The government has committed to introducing tougher
computer crime laws that could quadruple prison sentences for
hackers.
The new laws could also give police stronger powers to extradite
computer criminals operating outside the UK.
Home Office minister Caroline Flint told MPs on the All Party
Internet Group that she will introduce legislation to update the
Computer Misuse Act in the next Queen's speech or immediately
following the next election.
The government has effectively endorsed the recommendations from
the cross-party group, published last week, which included a call
to increase the maximum sentence for unauthorised access offences
from six months to two years and to clarify the law on denial of
service attacks.
The recommendations followed a campaign by Computer Weekly to
update the Computer Misuse Act, which was created in 1990 before
the current wave of computer crime.
Committee member MP Brian White said longer sentences would send a
signal to hackers that computer crime would not be tolerated and
give UK police powers to take action against overseas
hackers.
"By increasing the sentence to two years we are sending a signal
about how significant an offence hacking is. It will make it easier
for the police to extradite hackers from abroad," he said.
"People from the UK have been extradited to the US, but we are not
able to extradite from the US or overseas."
The government is also expected to act on the committee's
recommendations to clarify the UK's fraud laws. This will ensure
that phishing and fraud against computer systems, which is
currently not an offence, are explicitly made illegal.
The MPs acknowledged that the police lack the resources to tackle
the volume of computer crime faced by businesses in the UK, and
urged the government not to obstruct firms that want to bring
private prosecutions against computer hackers.
Ministers are considering creating specialist IT constables who
could be called in to help police with computer crime
investigations, the MPs revealed.
Other IT crime law recommendations
- Government to bring a new fraud bill to deal urgently with
phishing and other online fraud
- Law Commission to create laws to criminalise theft of
electronic data, which is currently not an offence
- Codes of practice for software suppliers governing spyware
- Home Office to systematically collect statistics on computer
crime
- Prosecution of fraudsters who develop hacking tools which
surreptitiously call premium rate numbers
- ISPs to systematically monitor security of customers'
machines.