computer law (Computer Misuse Act 1990).

 As discussed before on the computer ethics post, a computer should not be used to cause damage or to gain authorised access to a system to steal data or destroy and wiping the hard drive. The second commandment is "Thou shalt not interfere with other people’s computer work"(Feldman et al., 2017).  Yet, this commandment is not enough to prevent criminals from exploiting computers and system vulnerabilities. As most companies' businesses nowadays are done digitally on a network (Bissellet al., 2019). Therefore, there are computer laws to prevent such actions and crimes. The law that prevents cybercrimes is Computer Misuse Act 1990.

According to the Legislation.gov.uk website, the Computer Misuse Act 1990 is 'An Act to make provision for securing computer material against unauthorised access or modification; and for connected purposes.' (Computer Misuse Act 1990, 1991). This act makes the person guilty if:

• Using any program or data to gain unauthorised access to a computer. For example, hacking into a system (Computer Misuse Act 1990, 1991).
• Unauthorised access to a computer with the intent to impair the data or the computer material in any way. For example, exploiting the system vulnerabilities and infecting the computer with malware (Computer Misuse Act 1990, 1991).
• Unauthorised access to a computer and causing modification (Computer Misuse Act 1990, 1991). 

And the penalty for these actions is shown in the table below:

(Computer Misuse Act (1990) - Ethical, legal and environmental impact - CCEA - GCSE Digital Technology (CCEA) Revision - BBC Bitesize, 2020)

references:

• BBC Bitesize. 2020. Computer Misuse Act (1990) - Ethical, Legal And Environmental Impact - CCEA - GCSE Digital Technology (CCEA) Revision - BBC Bitesize. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8m36yc/revision/5> [Accessed 4 December 2020].
• Bissell, K., LaSalle, R., and Cin, P., 2019. The Cost Of Cybercrime. [ebook] Traverse City, p.6. Available at: <https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/pdf-96/accenture-2019-cost-of-cybercrime-study-final.pdf> [Accessed 4 December 2020].
• Feldman, J., Misenar, S., and Conrad, E., 2017. Eleventh Hour CISSP. 3rd ed. [ebook] Syngress. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128112489/eleventh-hour-cissp> [Accessed 4 December 2020]
• Legislation.gov.uk. 1991. Computer Misuse Act 1990. [online] Available at: <https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/introduction> [Accessed 4 December 2020].