Cyber Crime

May 08, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka on Tuesday enacted the Computer Crimes Bill introducing legislation which gives more power to law enforcement agencies when fighting computer crimes, the government ICT agency said. "The Basis of the Computer Crimes Bill is to criminalise attempts at unauthorised access to a computer, computer programme, data or information," Jayantha Fernando, Legal Advisor ICT Agency (ICTA) said in a statement.

"It also contains a provision to deal with unauthorised use of computers regardless of whether the offender had authority to access the computer,"

Any unauthorised copying, modification, alteration or deletion of information, denial of service and causing damage or harm to the computer by the introduction of viruses and logic bombs are considered offences in the Act.

Intercepting computer programmes, data or information while it is being transmitted from one computer to another are also considered offences.

The draft legislation on Computer Crime was first presented in 2005 since the provisions contained in Sri Lanka's penal code to address computer crimes were limited in scope.

The bill was submitted for final approval in May 2005 but was held back since computer