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Computer Crime
New Massachusetts Computer Crime Law
In 1995, the Massachusetts legislature enacted legislation designed
to punish and help deter several forms of computer crime. Up until
the passage of this legislation, it was a crime to completely remove
data from a computer system without authorization - damaging data
left on a system and "snooping" in systems were not prohibited.
The new law changed this.
Specifically, this legislation:
- Prohibits unauthorized
access to any computer system, either directly or by network or
telephone. The law provides that the use of password authorization
systems to control access to a computer system puts people on
notice that their access is unauthorized if they don't have a
legitimate password.
- Amends the criminal vandalism
statute to make it clear that electronically stored or processed
data is "property", the destruction or corruption of
which is illegal.
- Prohibits the theft of
commercial computer service.
The law also made two improvements to Massachusetts
procedural law allowing easier prosecution of computer related offenses
with less disruption to legitimate business. Previously, businesses
whose systems had been violated were deterred from actively prosecuting
the offense because they might be faced with prosecutors having
to seize originals of their computer and data files. The updated
computer crime law makes electronic copies of these files admissible,
thus allowing a business to maintain use of its systems for ongoing
operations. It also provides that computer crime may be prosecuted
and punished either in the county where the perpetrator was physically
located at the time he or she committed the crime, or in the county
where the computer system and data that was accessed or corrupted
was located at the time of the violation. This means, for example,
that a hacker accessing a Massachusetts based business's computers
in Massachusetts from another state would be susceptible to prosecution
in Massachusetts.
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