Computer Crime in Ireland: A Critical Assessment of the Substantive Law

Abstract

Irish law on computer crime is an afterthought. The principal offenses in this area are contained in the Criminal Damage Act 1991 and the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001: in both cases, the offenses have been tacked on to an Act whose primary focus is elsewhere, and in both cases the drafting reflects this lack of attention. In addition, the offenses are beginning to show their age: recent technological developments have resulted in new threats and responses which do not fit easily into the existing law.

Some reform of the law is overdue, and in any event will be necessary if Ireland is to implement the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime and the (proposed) Council Framework Decision on Attacks Against Information Systems. This article looks at the substantive law relating to computer crime with a view to identifying problems which currently exist, flagging some developing issues and offering some suggestions for reform.

Keywords: cybercrime, computer crime, information technology