Security Minister Dan Jarvis has stated that the new UK administration is “considering all options” to combat cybercrime and has pledged to address cybersecurity as a matter of national security.
During the opening remarks at Recorded Future’s Predict 2024 event in London on October 22, the Minister stated that this involves a review of the 1990 Computer Misuse Act.
Why the UK’s Computer Misuse Act Needs Reform
As worries about computer-related crime and hacking grew, the UK passed the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) in 1990. It addressed the need to control misuse of computer technology and unauthorized access to computer systems, making it one of the first laws of its sort.
Over the years, the law has undergone multiple amendments, most notably the Serious Crime Act of 2015 and the Police and Justice Act of 2006, which followed the News International phone hacking incident in 2011.
It is acknowledged, meanwhile, that the law as it stands now runs the risk of making cybersecurity experts—like researchers and pen testers—who employ hacking tactics as part of their work illegal.
The Labour Party, which was the main opposition party in the UK at the time, suggested a legislation amendment in 2023 that would have permitted ethical hackers to invoke a public interest defence in response to attempts by the CyberUp Campaign, an industry coalition advocating for reform of the CMA.
Despite a public survey conducted by the previous Conservative government, the measure was not passed.
At Predict 2024, Jarvis said that today, unauthorized computer access can “lead to a wide range of frauds, theft, and extortion, and can also facilitate stalking, domestic abuse, and harassment, destroying businesses and ruining lives.”
One million CMA offences were reported to the UK government in 2023, with the majority involving the theft of personal information.
“These crimes are estimated to cost the UK economy billions of pounds every year,” Jarvis continued.
Questioning sanction regimes of cyber legislation
In 2004, Daniel Cuthbert, who attended Predict 2024 and co-chaired the British government’s cybersecurity advisory board, was charged under the CMA for illegally accessing a charity website.
It was “great to hear,” Cuthbert commented on X after the British Minister for Security’s speech, that the government was thinking of changing the law “to reflect ever-growing attacks against the UK.”
Allan Liska, a threat intelligence analyst at Recorded Future, said that the UK is not the only country that needs to evaluate the sanctions regimes of cybersecurity legislation that were implemented in the 1990s.
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