Internet networks have invasive access to our lives in a way that we rely on today for work, business, education, entertainment, getting the services we are looking for and buying the things we need. In the past, we had internet access, but nowadays we have access to the internet. Disclosure and display of our personal lives lead to questioning and the need for a legal code to apply law and order is combined here.
It is possible to define cyber-crimes as criminal activities carried out by means of computers or the internet. According to the Federal Law of the U.A.E., many activities may be regarded as cyber-crimes as follows; access to, and illegal access to, a website, system or electronic information network without permission or breach of the same permission. That is what the Emirati legislative body did by issuing the 2012 Federal Law Code No.5 and amending it to the 2016 Federal Law Code No.12 governing cyber-crimes in the U.A.E.
The penalty varies depending on the illicit gains resulting from the perpetration of such criminal activities; the illicit gains take the form of the permanent deletion, termination, disclosure, modification, copying, publication or republication of any data or information; In case of breach of personal information, or in case the offender has committed the crime because of and/or on the occasion of his/her job performance, there are more severe penalties.
Under Article No.4, for the purpose of obtaining governmental and confidential information and any data relating to a commercial, financial or economic establishment, unauthorized access to a website constitutes a serious crime, a felony or a crime. The penalty of imprisonment is not less than 5 years and/or a fine not less than 500,000 dirhams and not exceeding two million dirhams if the illicit gains resulted in any data or information being deleted, terminated, disclosed, changed, copied, published or republished.
A cybercrime may take the form of unauthorized access to a website for the purpose of destroying, modifying, canceling or designing the website, issuing a forged electronic document or using an electronic document which is known to be forged.
Cybercrimes under the 2012 Federal Law Code No.5 and its amendments are divided into four main branches from the perspective of the interest violated, which are;
1- Cybercrimes against people
2- Cybercrimes in monetary terms
3- Anti-state and national security cybercrimes
4- Cybercrimes and public morals against public policy
Cyber-crimes against individuals can take the form of hacking on cell phones, laptops, personal computers, or even hacking social media accounts; transmitting pornographic content using cyber-space & internet network means are a very significant example of cyber-crimes that are against both U.A.E. public morals and policy as an Arab and Muslim country. Verbal E-Crimes comes into the scope of Hi-tech Crime, specially by using social media sites e.g., Facebook, Twitter, accounts to insult others or threaten them.
There are many forms of monetary cybercrime, such as robbery, hacking, fraudulent transactions, illicit donation collection and illegal e-commerce by cyber-space means.
As long as these activities were carried out using network means, threatening the state and sedition on violating law and order, such as sedition on protesting on Facebook and Twitter sites, are considered as cybercrimes against the state and national security.
FTD Partners has a team of experienced lawyers with in-depth knowledge and solid tools; everything works for your interest professionally in the best way.
