The Computer Misuse Act 1990 (OCR A Level Computer Science)

Case Study

Two individuals were sentenced under the Computer Misuse Act for Theft of Data

• The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has led the successful prosecution of 2 individuals for violating the CMA by stealing personal information to make scam calls

• Kim Doyle who is now a former employee of the RAC was found guilty of transferring personal data to to accident claims firm without permission

• This included data such as road traffic accident data, names, phone numbers and registration numbers

• She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to secure unauthorised access to computer data, and selling unlawfully obtained personal data

• Kim Doyle and William Shaw have been handed an 8 month prison sentence which was suspended for 2 years

Exam Tip

• You need to make sure that when answering a question on the Computer Misuse Act that you not only describe the law but relate it to the relevant scenario asked

  • How does the Computer Misuse Act affect the company in the scenario?

  • What are the consequences of the actions taken?

Worked Example

“The Computer Misuse Act means that computer users are criminalised for simply trying to learn how systems work”

Discuss whether or not you agree with this statement. 

9 marks

How to answer this question:

• Describe your knowledge of the Computer Misuse Act

• Mention the three main offences 

• Apply to a scenario, in this case the question hasn’t given us a full scenario so we can use our own

• Keep the argument balanced, once you’ve spoken about one side, then speak about the other

• Then write your conclusion and use your own opinion

Answer:

Example answer that gets full marks:

The Computer Misuse Act (CMA) is a provision for securing computer material against unauthorised access or modification to the system. 

Under the CMA there are three main offences that you can be prosecuted for; The unauthorised access to a computer system, the unauthorised access to the computer system with intent to make changes and unauthorised access to the computer system and making changes.

Users can still investigate how computer systems work; they would just need to get authorisation before doing so. For example you could ask the owner of the computer system to allow access first or you could create a virtual computer system and use this to investigate. 

The CMA could however be broken by accessing an email account of somebody without permission. Ultimately users need to make sure that they are aware of the law when accessing any computer system. 

In conclusion I disagree with the statement “The Computer Misuse Act means that computer users are criminalised for simply trying to learn how systems work” as users are able to educate themselves on the details of the CMA easily online and therefore should know the consequences of accessing a computer system without the right authorisation. There are plenty of online platforms, programs and systems that are accessible to access virtually and would not be in breach of the CMA.