"It's largely how I felt about the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) last August when it reached its 35 th - a law well past time for an overhaul, not just out of date but downright dangerous. It is why I have been working with colleagues for well over a decade to try to persuade successive governments to make the necessary changes our nation desperately needs."
"The CMA was originally drafted to protect telephone exchanges - even that sentence sounds quaint. At that time, only 0.5% of the UK had access to the internet. In the intervening period, has that 0.5% doubled, increased tenfold? Well, as we know, 98.7% of us are now online in the UK and yet the law remains unchanged. "Out of dateness" should be reason enough for urgent change."
The Computer Misuse Act (CMA) dates from 1990 and was drafted to protect telephone exchanges when internet access in the UK was around 0.5%. Internet adoption now exceeds 98%, yet the statute remains unchanged and ill-suited to modern technologies and platforms. The outdated law causes daily harm to cyber professionals, weakens national security, constrains the cyber industry, and increases economic risk from cyber attacks. The UK has been reviewing the CMA since 2021 while other nations update frameworks to provide clearer protections for good-faith cyber activity. Decisive legislative reform is urgently required to align law with contemporary digital realities.
Read at ComputerWeekly.com
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