LaosPenal Code, Illegal Access to a Computer System
Penal Code No. 26/NA (), arts. 164-165
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 2021. Publisher's page: https://laoofficialgazette.gov.la/kcfinder/upload/files/1Oct2020_Lao%20Penal%20Code_English%20version.pdfIn force.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not defeat a special protection system to access a computer system with intent to obtain commercial, financial or privately held data.
- Reading a public, unauthenticated page without defeating any special protection system has not itself been held to violate this provision.
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. 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
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Imprisonment for three months to one year and a fine of 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 kip, on conviction (Penal Code, art. 165).
Penalty structure
Fine only, as the ceiling of the stated range; the same article also allows imprisonment of three months to one year instead of or in addition to the fine.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- LAK
- Fixed cap
- 5,000,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Article 165 makes it an offence to use electronic instruments in a computer system with a special protection system, intending to obtain commercial, financial or privately held data illegally; Article 164 makes disclosure of such protection measures an offence. It imposes no duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record. The Code's general territorial articles (Articles 8 and 9) are not invoked by these articles, so no hook is read from them.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Article 165 criminalises using electronic instruments in a computer system that has a special protection system, with intent to illegally obtain commercial, financial or individuals' privately held data, punishable by three months to one year imprisonment and a fine of 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 kip.
Article 164 separately criminalises disclosing the special protection measures themselves against illegal access to a computer system, where the disclosure is made without permission and causes damage to the State, individuals, legal persons, organizations or society.
The Penal Code also criminalises, in the same chapter, illegal interception of non-public computer data transmissions (art. 167) and interference with a computer system (art. 170), neither of which is addressed to reading a page a publisher has made public. Article 425 provides that the Penal Code comes into force from the date the President of the Lao PDR issues a Presidential Decree to promulgate it and after it is published in the Official Gazette for fifteen days.
The Official Gazette records the Code as published on , and no source stating the day it came into force has been located.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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