It is looking like the new Bahrain CyberCrime law is going to set the demographic bar for those Hackers and Hacktivists who are found to be culpable of an act, and they could be looking forward to 10 years imprisonment, and fines up to BD300,000 [$795,714]. This new law is described as the first of its kind to be introduced in the Arab World as an ‘Information Technology Bill’ which has already received approval from Parliament, and is expected to be implemented post obtaining the right to pass from the Shoura Council.
As one would expect the penalties which could be imposed are in respect of obtaining unauthorised access to computer system(s), hacking into networks, and of course where there is culpable intent, acts to destroy or to damage information assets, which could, in some cases see the imposition of three years in prison or a fine of BD50,000, or both. However it is expected that the level of imprisonment will increase to seven years and BD300,000 fine, or both if the offence is found to be Serious –whatever the measure of serious is of course! This new legislation also encompasses any act which intentionally threatens public safety, tampers with medical reports or leads to people’s deaths.
The Shura Council foreign affairs, defence and national security committee chairman Dr Shaikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said in an interview with the Gulf Daily News that CyberCrime was on the rise and this act was in response to the potential imposed dangers. He then commented that “There are large numbers of crimes, mainly financial, using the Internet, and according to information provided by the Central Bank of Bahrain, there are 17,000 financial crimes committed per second worldwide using computer systems and programmes,”. Al Khalifa added that this law had been delayed for more than two years because “we wanted something strong that matches developments in criminology and even when the law gets approved it will require continuous updates through amendments”.
This is yet another example of just how serious the threat of CyberCrime is considered, and an excellent example of an initiative that is imposing new legislations to help counter, and to respond to the scourge of Cyber Criminality – Well done Bahrain.
[su_box title=”About Professor John Walker – FMFSoc FBCS FRSA CITP CISM CRISC ITPC
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Visiting Professor at the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Visiting Professor/Lecturer at the University of Slavonia [to 2015], Independent Consultant, Practicing Expert Witness, ENISA CEI Listed Expert, Editorial Member of the Cyber Security Research Institute (CRSI), Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS), Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA), Board Advisor to the Digital Trust, Writer for SC Magazine UK, Originator of DarkWeb Threat Intelligence, CSIRT, Attack Remediation and Cyber Training Service/Platform, Accreditation Assessor and Academic Practitioner and Accredited Advisor to the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences in the area of Digital/Cyber Forensics.
Twitter: @SBLTD
John Walker is also our Panel member. To find out more about our panel members visit the biographies page.[/su_box]
John is the Principle at Shadow-Intelligence (Si), partnering with PALISCOPE, BreachAware and iStorage. He is a Visiting Professor at the School of Science and Technology, Nottingham, Trent University (NTU) and holds the appointment of Editor in Chief for the International Journal of Cyber Forensics and Advanced Threat Investigations (CFATI). For the last decade he has delivered training courses in the Middle, and Far East to Commercial, Industrial, the Financial Services Sector, and Military Agencies, including the UAE, US, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia (KL), Singapore, Argentina, and Sao Paulo
He served in the Royal Air Force 22 years’, specialising in Counterintelligence, working with UK Agencies such as GCHQ/CESG, and others in the fields of SIGINT, COMINT and Satellite Communications, holding appointments such as System ITSO for a CIA SCIF.
In the commercials sectors of IT/Cyber he has worked for/with Logica, Bae, T5, GM, Experian, Betfair, Palace of Westminster, House of Lords/Commons, TSol (Treasury Solicitors) and provided Consultancy to the Saudi Arabian MOD, TRA (Telecommunications Authority (Dubai) and the Military Academy of Malaysia (KL) on SOC, CSIRT, Digital Forensics and OSINT. Within the last 5 years he has focused on Geopolitics, with global expertise around the UAE and Russia, Anti-Terrorist Operations (ATO), Cyber-Warfare, Dezinformatsiya (Disinformation) and Maskirovka (Military Deception).
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