The United Kingdom (UK) has passed a law that makes hacking into an unauthorized network a felony.
The law states:
Section 1 of the Act refers to unauthorized access to computer material. This states that a person commits an offence if he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure unauthorized access to any program or data held in any computer. For a successful conviction under this part of the Act, the prosecution must prove that the access secured is unauthorized and that the suspect knew that this was the case. This section is designed to deal with common-or- garden hacking.
Section 2 of the Act deals with unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate the commission of further offences. An offence is committed under Section 2 if a Section 1 offence has been committed and there is the intention of committing or facilitating a further offence (any offence which attracts a custodial sentence of more than five years, not necessarily one covered by the Act). Even if it is not possible to prove the intent to commit the further offence, the Section 1 offence is still committed.
Section 3 offences cover unauthorized modification of computer material, which generally means the creation and distribution of viruses. For a conviction to succeed there must have been the intent to cause the modification, and knowledge that the modification had not been authorized.
What is this law called?