PakistanPrevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, unauthorized access and interference offences
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, ss. 3, 5 and 6 (Act No. XL of 2016)
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 2024. Publisher's page: https://www.na.gov.pk/uploads/documents/1470910659_707.pdfIn force since .
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Operator establishment, Place of effect
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not access an information system or data in Pakistan that is not available to the general public without authorization, or in violation of the terms and conditions of an authorization already granted; unauthorized access is a criminal offence under section 3 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, and a more heavily punished one under section 6 where the system is critical infrastructure.NIST AI RMFMAP 4.1
- Do not interfere with, damage, or disrupt an information system or data in Pakistan without authorization, which section 5 of the Act separately punishes.no control in the NIST AI RMF
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
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Sections 3, 5 and 6 punish dishonest unauthorized access to an information system or data, interference with or damage to an information system or data, and unauthorized access to a critical infrastructure information system or data. They create no duty to create, keep or produce a log or record. The row cites those sections only; section 29 of the Act requires a service provider to retain its specified traffic data for a minimum of one year, or the period the Authority notifies, a duty on service providers outside the cited sections. Section 1 applies the Act to every citizen of Pakistan wherever he may be, to every other person for the time being in Pakistan, and to an act committed outside Pakistan that constitutes an offence under the Act and affects a person, property, information system or data located in Pakistan.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 3 punishes whoever, with dishonest intention, gains unauthorized access to any information system or data, with imprisonment up to three months or a fine up to Rs 50,000, or both.
"Unauthorized access" is defined in section 2 as access to an information system or data that is not available for access by the general public, without authorization or in violation of the terms and conditions of the authorization, so information the general public may access is excluded from the offence on its own terms.
Section 5 separately punishes interfering with or damaging an information system or data without authorization, with imprisonment up to two years or a fine up to Rs 500,000, or both. Section 6 punishes the same conduct as section 3 where the information system or data is critical infrastructure, with a higher tier of imprisonment up to three years or a fine up to Rs 1,000,000, or both. The text summarized is the version as passed by the National Assembly.
The Act's own commencement clause says that it comes into force at once without naming a day. Section 5(1) of the General Clauses Act, 1897 provides that a Central Act not expressed to come into operation on any particular day comes into operation on the day on which it receives the assent of the President. The Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, of , which publishes the Act, records that it received the assent of the President on . The Pakistan Code's text of the Act is dated beneath the Act number.
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