-13“The reference in subsection (2)(c) to doing unlawful damage to anything in a building includes— (a) unlawfully causing a computer in the building to function other than as it has been established by or on behalf of its owner to function, notwithstanding that the unlawful action may not impair the operation of the computer or a program held in the computer or the reliability of data held in the computer; (b) unlawfully altering or erasing any program, or data, held in a computer in the building or in a computer storage medium in the building; and (c) unlawfully adding any program or data to the contents of a computer in the building or a computer storage medium in the building.” 27. In a memorandum to the Legislative Council submitted with the Computer Crimes Bill reference was made to a Working Group on Computer Related Crime which was established in 1984 to report to the Attorney-General and did so in March 1988. Its recommendations were considered by the Legal Affairs Policy Group which, as quoted in the memorandum to the Legislative Council, agreed: “(a) Although there is little evidence that computer-related crime has become a major problem, appropriate legal sanctions should be put in place given the widespread use of computers in Hong Kong. (b) The present law is inadequate in areas where computers have been accessed dishonestly. Most of the preparatory work for a computerrelated crime can be performed without committing any existing offence. Such preparatory work, which could include gaining access to a computer with an intent to deceive or to cause loss to another or gain for the wrongdoer should be specifically punishable without the need to prove the ultimate criminal act has been committed. A new offence of [‘dishonest accessing’] should therefore be created to

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents