Criminal Damage
Under section 60 of the Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200), laws of Hong Kong, a person who without lawful excuse destroys or damages any property belonging to another intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged shall be guilty of an offence.
‘Property' includes any program or data held on a computer or on a computer storage medium, irrespective of whether or not it is property of a tangible nature.
For ‘destroy or damage any property', it covers any misuse of a computer, eg:
Some common consequences of criminal damage of computer systems:
Under Section 59(1A) of the Crimes Ordinance (Chapter 200), criminal damage also includes ‘the misuse of a computer’.
This means
(a) to cause a computer to function other than as it has been established to function by or on behalf of its owner , although the misuse may not impair the computer operation or a program held in the computer or the reliability of data held in the computer;
(b) to alter or erase any program or data held in a computer or in a computer storage medium;
(c) to add any program or data to the contents of a computer or of a computer storage medium, and any act which contributes towards causing the misuse as referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (c).
The maximum penalty for the offence convicted under section 60 of the Crimes Ordinance is 10 years imprisonment.
For legal advice or services on Cyber & Technology Crime, please contact CHOW & CHEUNG, Hong Kong Solicitors & Notary Public. [Tel: +852 2856 3799 Email: cac@ccsn.hk]
www.ccsn.hk
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