Hong Kong Law Reform Commission proposes 5 new offences to rein in cybercrime, with tougher penalties of up to life imprisonment
- Recommendations can help tackle issues such as illegal use of metadata and interfering with companies or hospitals’ computer data systems
- Proposed offences would have extraterritorial application so long as the crime in question had a connection to Hong Kong
Five specific new offences to rein in cybercrime with tougher penalties of up to life imprisonment have been proposed by Hong Kong’s Law Reform Commission as part of the city’s duty under national security legislation to ensure internet safety.
The commission’s recommendations could help tackle issues ranging from the illegal use of metadata and jamming systems by flooding them with internet traffic to interfering with companies or hospitals’ computer data systems, no matter if a person committed the crime inside or outside the jurisdiction.
Citing the need to catch up with fast-changing technology, the commission said the proposed new offences were partly a consolidation of existing laws, including the offence of obtaining access to a computer with dishonest intent, long decried by critics as a one-size-fits-all charge.
“The last review was conducted 22 years ago and since then technology has improved drastically,” senior counsel Derek Chan Ching-lung, a member of the commission’s cybercrime subcommittee in charge of the reforms, said on Tuesday.
“There still aren’t appropriate and specific laws in Hong Kong [to target cybercrimes].”
The maximum sentence under the proposals in most cases is 14 years in jail, as opposed to the present range of two to five years’ prison for existing offences. Light offenders, though, could be dealt with summarily with jail terms of two years or less.
However, when an act was so grave as to endanger the lives of others, a sentence of life imprisonment would be incurred, in line with the current penalty under the offence of criminal damage.