Security News > 2022 > February > Labour reminds UK.gov that it's supposed to be reforming the Computer Misuse Act

Labour reminds UK.gov that it's supposed to be reforming the Computer Misuse Act
2022-02-08 10:56

The shadow foreign secretary for UK's opposition Labour party, David Lammy MP, has asked why the reform of the Computer Misuse Act appears to have stalled in an open letter to government.

The letter, published on the Labour Party website, takes the ruling Conservative Party's ministers to task over a range of what Labour sees as a failure to act on various Russia-linked topics.

One of those is the Computer Misuse Act, which Home Secretary Priti Patel pledged to reform in a major speech last year.

Even though Labour raising CMA reform publicly is part of a political swipe at ministers rather than genuine agreement that change is long overdue, any public mention of it is likely to be good rather than bad. Around 80 per cent of infosec professionals surveyed by CyberUp in 2020 said they feared prosecution under the CMA for making a bad judgment call, though prosecution statistics show the odds of being taken to court under the act are vanishingly low.

Other industry sources from outside the big companies have told The Register they fear CMA reform may be a government excuse to increase the number of criminal offences under the act instead of enacting genuine change that protects security researchers and puts them on a level footing with their foreign counterparts.

That's why last May, the Home Secretary announced a review of the Computer Misuse Act to challenge those who unlawfully access computer systems.


News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/02/08/labour_computer_misuse_act_reform_questions/

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