TOPIC 2

COMPUTER CRIMES
(PART A)

P R E PA R E D B Y H A S H V I N I R E K H A
PA C H A P PA N & D R . M A N I Q U E C O O R AY
 Pornograp
hy and
obscenity

Online
Hacking
Gambling

EXAMPLES
OF
COMPUTER
CRIMES
Online
Spoofing defamatio
n

Phishing
TYPES OF COMPUTER CRIMES

What is “Hacking”/ “Unauthorised access to computer

material”?
• Hacking means gaining unauthorized access to any
computer system with or without intention to commit
further offence
(David I BainBridge, Introduction to Computer Law, 4th
ed., (England: Pearson Education, 2000)
EARLY DAYS OF “HACKING”
• A creative programmer who wrote very elegant or clever programs.
• A “good hack” was an especially clever piece of code. Hackers
have been called “computer virtuous.”
• Outside the social mainstream, spending many hours learning as
much as they could about computer systems and making them to
new things.
• High school and college students who “hacked” the computers at
their school.
• Primarily in learning and in intellectual challenges and the thrill of
going where they did not belong.
• Most had no intention of disrupting • Create great trouble to online
services. business enterprise.
• As more computers became attached • Online enterprises are required to
to networks, hacker activities spend millions of dollars to
expanded to the networks and the investigate.
work hacker often suggest breaking • Sometime they steal credit card
into computers on which the hacker numbers of customers which the
did not have legitimate access. business companies store in their
• Brought a sense of accomplishment. computer database
Some people use the term “cracker”
for those who break into systems
without authorization to steal or
cause damage. One writer describes
crackers simply as “mean spirited
hackers.”
• Usually the computer hackers’
intention is to modify or erase the
information or data kept in the
computer or to commit computer
 COMPUTER CRIMES ACT 1997

Defined in s 2(1) CCA

• What is “computer”? 1997.

This definition appears

to be derivative of the
definition set out in the
American legislation on
computer fraud and
abuse.
S3.UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO COMPUTER MATERIAL

Section 3 of the Act provides for offences of unauthorized access to computer

material. It reads:
(1) A person shall be guilty of an offence it:
(a)he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure
access to
any program or data held in any computer;
(b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorized; and
(c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the
function that that is the case.
(2) the intent a person has to have to commit an offence under this section
need not be directed at-
(a) any particular program or data
(b) a program or data or any particular kind; or
CASES TO REFER

• CREATIVE PURPOSE SDN BHD & ANOR V INTEGRATED TRANS CORP SDN
BHD & ORS [1997] 2 MLJ 429
• R V GOLD AND ANOTHER [1988] 2 ALL ER 186