The Computer Crime Law in Ireland

bend law varies in contrasting countries and temp to deal with reck wholenessrrelated law-breaking. Due to the ever-changing and the sophisticated number of in engineeration techno lumbery, invigorated type of ready reckoner crime surfaces everyday and is outlast the functionality of the system as an as puzzle of a b pastureless entropy lodge. In order to manage and protect this vibrant digital age, new legislation is excessively put in clothe to combat these crimes. The existing laws might befool been suitable for the old traditional estimator crime the use of a mobile device to denial your keylogg attack to your political machine may lease no legal reference in some(prenominal) formal data processor crime law.This paper will point out some of the cognize legislations that exist in Ireland and the EU relating to computer crime, and the awargonness in a computer forensic discipline. Introduction With the vast amount of business documents being written on comput ers, the popular use of email, transaction of business on the internet, computer keep most civil litigation evidence that exist in our present day. It is unimaginable for any business of a salubrious scale to function properly, these days, without the use of computer or any form of computing device.Unfortunately, what was designed to help solve almost all enigma that exist, (being social networking, e-commerce, entertainment, mortalal dairy, communication), is posing a great threat to the society that should benefit from it. Imagine a company that buys used cars online and re-sell them to deem profits, provides its employees with devalued internet access. An employer search through the usual websites and strand an interesting car at cheap price, instead of doing the transaction unbehalf of the company, he bought the car for himself.The four-in-hand saw him with the car the next day and raised suspicion. He consequently consulted a forensic investigator to handle the case. Sp ecial procedures may book to be carried out during a computer forensic investigation in order that any information gathered is eligible for use in a court of law. The investigation revealed that he used his account to log on to the work computer for the deal during working hours. The investigator found something else, a child pornographic material on his computer. Is this a computer crime? r an abuse of companys policy? , or something else?. Would the evidence found by an investigator contracted to do one job however did more be accepted in the court, if indicted? Would the Irish Data surety deed of conveyance of 1988 protect his secret from prosecution? or face Child Traffic and Pornographic Act 1998? Due to the fact that computer crime is generally new, specialized legislation is in place for some computer and digital specific criminal behaviour, and forensic investigators should be aware of this.The Irish Computer Crime Law The Irish Legislations that are relevant in the are a of computer crime are the Criminal terms Act, 1991, and the recent Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001. The Criminal Damage Act, 1991, air division 2(1) introduced the offense of damage to property, defined as a person who without lawful excuse damages any property belonging to some other intending to damage any such(prenominal) property or being wise as to whether any such property should be damaged is blameworthy of an criminal offense.Property includes data and damage to data includes the addition, alteration, corruption, erasure, or exploit thereof, or introduction of a virus therein, which causes damage. It shall be noted that the offensive withdraws the absence of lawful excuse and, in addition, requires the accused to act with enwrapped or recklessness. Summary conviction or on indictment carries different penalties. On summary conviction the penalties are a fine of up to 1,270 or imprisonment for up to 12 months, while on indictment the penalt ies are a fine of up to 12,700 or imprisonment for up to 10 years, or both.The 1991 Act introduced a range of offences. variance 3 of the 1991 Act introduced the offence of threatening to damage property and piece 4 introduced the offence of possession of any thing with intent to damage property. some(prenominal) carry the same penalties as a Section 2 offence Section 5 then introduced the offence of public presentation of a computer with intent to access data without lawful excuse. The offence is efined as a person who without lawful excuse operates a computer at heart the invoke with intent to access any data kept either within or outside(a) the State, or outside the State with intent to access any data within the State, shall whether or not he accesses any data, be discredited of an offence. The penalties on a conviction wrongdoer are a fine of up to 634, or imprisonment for up to 3 months. The recent update in Irish legislation, regarding computer-related crime in Irel and extends the previous Act and introduced the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud) Offences Act, 2001.The 2001 Act introduced various new offences into Irish law, most importantly, the Act which appear under Section 9. Section 9 states a person who dishonestly, whether within or outside the State, operates or causes to be operated a computer within the State with the intention of fashioning a gain for himself or herself or another(prenominal), or of causing exit to another, is guilty of an offence. This section introduced the concept of dishonesty into Irish computer related crime.The offender can be located either inside or outside the State and is required to act dishonestly, meaning without a claim of right made in good faith. The operation of a computer is required. The ever-increasing development of technology available to commit crime over the internet requires international co-operation beyond ordinary domestic legislation. Section 9 of the 2001 Act, which aim at a person, whether within or outside the State, point out the possibility of jurisdictional issues that comes up, and has allowed the courts to try an offender ir esteemive of their location at the relevant time. operates physical machine essential be operated from the state or cause to be operated doesnt require physical control of the machine, can be remotely controlled outside of the state. Section 9 of the 2001 Act, the presence of intent is required, that could relate to the unauthorized access of anothers computer or, alternatively, authorised access of a computer for unauthorised purposes bad faith use e. g. DOS.The intention must be to make a gain, whether for himself, or herself, or another, or, alternatively, to cause a loss to another. This carries a more severe offence than existed law under the 1991 Act. An indictable offence that carries a potential fine of unspecified amount, or maximum of 10 years in prison, or both. Privacy and Data security measure til now if the Irish C onstitution of 1937 does not clearly state the right to privacy, in the Kennedy & Arnold v Ireland 1987 IR 587, the Irish court recognised the existence of this law. expression 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides that Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the trade protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.The Irish Data Protection Act 1988 was passed on 13 July 1988, and implemented on 19 April 1989. This Act established the Irish Data Protection Commission. The Irish legislation was updated in 2003 by the Data Protection (Amendment) Act, which incor porates Directive 95/46/EC into Irish law. The law means Data protection is active your primordial right to privacy.You may access and correct data about yourself, but those who keep data about you have to comply with Data Protection Act. An individual or an organisation that collects stores or processes any data about living people on any type of computer or in a structured filing digital system, found guilty of an offence under the Acts can be fined amounts up to 100,000, on conviction on indictment and/or may be ordered to wipe off all or part of the database.There are two study sections in 2003 Data Protection amendment (1) Manual data which are held in filing systems, that is data that is recorded as part of a relevant filing system or with the intention that it should form part of a relevant filing system. (2) Relevant filing system means that the set is structured in such a way that specific information relating to a particular individual is readily accessible