Computer Misuse Act needs update says CBI

Earlier this month the Broad-band Britain Summit took place in London where the CBI called for the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) to be updated as more of the general public get online as broadband becomes almost ubiquitous in the UK.

Jeremy Beale, head of e-business policy at the CBI told the conference that: “The government is walking towards a political time bomb by trying to get all these excluded groups like the elderly and the un-employed online while just relying on awareness campaigns. Aware-ness campaigns are important. But the Government could – as it has been encouraged to – amend the Computer Misuse Act.”

The act itself was passed in 1990 years before computer hackers became a real problem on computer networks. The act also pre-dates the invention of the Internet by Tim Berners-Lee.

The CMA has proven to be inadequate in many aspects of cyber law. In a recent example a teenager was cleared of un-leashing a denial of service attack against his employer’s network because this activity isn’t covered by the CMA.