Dubai: The UAE Public Prosecution has warned people that gaining access to a website without authorisation, with the intention to change its designs, or delete, destroy or modify it, or occupy the website address is a crime punishable by jail time, a heavy financial penalty or both.
Taking to its social media accounts, the authority posted a message on August 26, raising awareness on Article 5 of the Federal Law 5 of 2012 on Combatting Cybercrimes, also known as the UAE Cybercrimes Law, which stipulates a penalty of imprisonment and a fine ranging from Dh100,000 to Dh300,000 for the crime.
Other articles in the Cybercrimes Law also stipulate stricter penalties if an individual is convicted of gaining unauthorised access to a website to obtain government or confidential data (Article 4), or who access websites to forge such data (Article 6).
Article 4 of the law states: “Shall be punished by temporary imprisonment and a fine not less than Dh250,000 and not in excess of Dh1.5 million, whoever accesses a website, electronic information system, computer network, or information technology means without authorisation whether such access is intended to obtain government data, or confidential information relating to a financial, commercial or economical facility. The punishment shall be imprisonment for a period of at least five years and a fine not less than Dh500,000 and not in excess of Dh2million, if these data or information were deleted, omitted, deteriorated, destructed, disclosed, altered, copied, published or re-published.”
