Cyber-crime bill sails through Senate

The bill was approved by the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication in a meeting chaired by the committee’s chairman Senator Shahi Syed. Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman was also present on the occasion.

Now those involved in electronic crimes should beware as the government has passed the bill that ratifies fine and punishment to cyber criminals.

The bill has already been passed the following year by National Assembly on April 13. Now it will be resubmitted in NA to discuss and approve the amendments proposed by the Senate body.

Illegal access to data is punishable by three months prison term and 50,000 fine, according to the bill. The copy or transfer of data without permission may send a person behind the bars for as much as six months and dine him Rs0.1 million.

A person may also have to face up to two years imprisonment for interfering in informative stats, while he could also be fined as much as half a million rupees.

Similarly, unauthorized access to sensitive infrastructure, information system or data can get an accused jailed for five years and fined Rs 5 million.

The bill also mentions harsh punishments for facilitating hate speech, cyber terrorism, electronic fraud, issuance of cellular SIM cards and other illegal acts.

The federal government will set up emergency response teams to foil cyber attacks on information systems.