When was the computer misuse act introduced and why?

Answer 1

The computer misuse act came into affect in 1990. The United Kingdom's Parliament enacted it after a highly publicized court case, R v Gold and Schriffen in 1988, one of the earliest to deal with early cyber crime. It covers issues regarding unauthorized access to materials on computers, computer-related activities enabling other types of crime, and modifications to the materials or functionality of computers.

Answer 2

The Computer Misuse Act of the UK was introduced in 1990. The law was enacted in part because there were no adequate laws to handle hacking.

Robert Schifreen and Stephen Gold, used conventional home computers and modems in late 1984 and early 1985 to gain unauthorised access to a service owned by British Telecom. Schifreen looked over a Prestel engineer's shoulder at a trade show to get the password. With that, Schifreen and Gold managed to access Prince Phillip's personal messages. They were tried under a forgery and counterfeiting law. They were given a modest fine, but appealed the ruling. The Court of Appeal found that the law was misapplied, and the House of Lords upheld that decision. After that, the English Law Commission concluded that a new law was needed.

The Computer Misuse Act banned unauthorized access, modifying computer information without authorization, and using unauthorized access to further criminal activities.