Hackers face 2 year minimum sentence if draft EU law is passed
The EU Civil Liberties Committee has backed a draft law that would update existing EU legislation on cyber attacks which would see any cyber attack on any IT system treated as a criminal offense punishable by at least two years in prison.
The proposals will also make it illegal to possess so-called “hacking tools” and will impose EU-wide minimum sentences for hacking crimes, much harsher than those currently prescribed by British laws. Under the rules, likely to be adopted as an EU Directive in the summer, using another person’s electronic identity to commit attacks would be punishable by three years in prison and companies who employ hackers to attack competitors could be shut down. The proposals would unite laws across the European Union for anyone found guilty of a cyber attack against a website, database or network. Similarly, illegally accessing, interfering with and intercepting data will be treated as a criminal offence.
