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Better protection of rights

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-23 07:44

With modern life - from banking transactions to our dealings with others at various levels - increasingly connected online, the safety of information on personal computer has turned into a major concern.

A new stipulation that makes the invasion of personal computer information systems a crime has, therefore, not come a day too soon. The stipulation comes in the seventh amandment to the country's Criminal Law, which underwent its second reading at the sixth session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee yesterday.

In the existing Criminal Law, only invasion of the computer information systems of State affairs, national defense and other frontier science and technology constituted a crime, punishable with an imprisonment of three years.

The new stipulations that were added to the amended draft only after its first reading at the NPC Standing Committee session are meant to better protect the interest of personal computer users.

Illegally exerting control over others' computer information system is also a crime, according to the stipulations. And so is the act of providing programs or other tools that make it possible for others to invade or exert control over others' computer information systems.

What is noteworthy is the fact the imprisonment for serious intruders has been increased from three years to seven years.

The message is that some do take advantage of loopholes in the unrevised Criminal Law to break into other people's computers and steal their information. Then they sell such information to those who would use the information for illegal purposes.

With more than 200 million Internet users and the prospect of an even larger number in the years to come, more and more people tend to save their personal information in their computers. Breaking into the system is a blatant violation of a person's privacy.

Such invasion can sometimes be as damaging as that of a burglary into a person's home. So there is no reason to treat such violations as only immoral acts. Yet, it was like that so far, with no provisions in the criminal codes to provide legal means against such an offence.

The new stipulation would thus mean much more than just blocking the loopholes in the criminal legal codes. It signifies a greater emphasis that China's legislation places on the protection of the right of individuals.

(China Daily 12/23/2008 page8)