Saint Kitts and NevisElectronic Crimes Act, illegal access and related computer-misuse offences
Electronic Crimes Act (Cap. 4.41; Act 27 of 2009, as amended by Act 26 of 2012), ss. 4, 5, 6, 11
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived . Publisher's page: https://lawcommission.gov.kn/wp-content/documents/Act17TOC/Ch-04_41-Electronic-Crimes-Act.pdfIn force since .
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Operator establishment
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not access a computer system, or any part of it, without lawful excuse or justification, including to copy, transfer or output data from it.NIST AI RMFMAP 4.1
- Do not interfere with data on, or the operation of, a computer system without lawful excuse or justification.no control in the NIST AI RMF
- Do not access a computer system the Minister has designated as restricted; a heavier penalty applies where access to a restricted system occurs in the course of another offence under this Act.NIST AI RMFMAP 4.1
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework, and in the NIST AI RMF, line by line beside each duty above. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Illegal access, interfering with data, and interfering with a computer system (ss. 4, 5, 6) each carry, on summary conviction, a fine of up to XCD 5,000 or one year's imprisonment for a first conviction, rising to XCD 10,000 or two years for a subsequent one. Unauthorised access to a restricted computer system (s. 11) carries, on conviction on indictment, a fine of up to XCD 75,000 or five years, rising to XCD 100,000 or seven years where the restricted-system access occurs in the course of an offence under ss. 4 to 7.
Penalty structure
Multiple tiers apply. Ordinary illegal access, data interference or system interference (ss. 4-6): XCD 5,000 or 1 year (first conviction), XCD 10,000 or 2 years (subsequent conviction), each on summary conviction. Unauthorised access to a Minister-designated restricted computer system (s. 11): XCD 75,000 or 5 years on indictment, rising to the XCD 100,000 or 7 years recorded here where the restricted-system access occurs in the course of an offence under ss. 4-7.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- XCD
- Fixed cap
- 100,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Sections 4, 5, 6 and 11 define offences of illegal access, interfering with data, interfering with a computer system and unauthorised access to a restricted computer system, each committed "knowingly" and "without lawful excuse or justification". They impose no duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record. The Act's investigatory Part (for example s. 21 on traffic data and s. 23 on expedited preservation of computer data) is outside the sections this row cites and is not part of this row. Section 3 states that the Act applies to an act done in Saint Christopher and Nevis, on a ship or aircraft registered there, or by a national of the country abroad where the conduct is also an offence where committed, and that clause reaches these offences.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 4 makes it an offence to knowingly access the whole or part of a computer system without lawful excuse or justification, or in excess of one, punishable on summary conviction by a fine of up to five thousand dollars or one year's imprisonment for a first conviction, rising to ten thousand dollars or two years for a subsequent one. Sections 5 and 6 similarly criminalise interfering with data and interfering with a computer system.
Section 11 creates a heavier offence, up to seventy-five thousand dollars or five years for gaining access to a restricted computer system (one the Minister has designated by Order), rising to one hundred thousand dollars or seven years where the access occurs in the course of an offence under sections 4 to 7.
Unlike a computer-misuse offence conditioned on infringing a security measure, section 4's trigger is accessing a system without lawful excuse or justification, which does not by its own terms require circumventing a technical control, so whether reading a public, unauthenticated page falls inside or outside a plain reading of the section is less clear-cut than in a jurisdiction with an explicit security-measure element, and no reported Kittitian or Nevisian case construes the point.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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