PalauPenal Code, unauthorized computer access
17 PNCA secs. 3101, 3109-3111 (Computer Crimes, Unauthorized Computer Access)
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 2023. Publisher's page: https://palauosp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Penal-Code-17-PNCA.pdfIn force.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not access a computer, computer system, or computer network without authorization, meaning without the permission of, or in excess of the permission granted by, its owner, lessor, or rightful user.
- Whether reading a public, unauthenticated page without such permission falls inside or outside this offense has not been tested in a reported Palauan decision; Palau's authorization test turns on the owner's permission rather than on defeating a technical security measure.
- Accessing without authorization and obtaining information is a more serious offense where it is done for commercial or private financial gain, in furtherance of another crime, where the information's value exceeds $5,000, or where the information is legally protected against disclosure.
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
Unauthorized computer access carries imprisonment of up to ten years for the class B felony tier, five years for the class C felony tier, or one year for the misdemeanor tier (17 PNCA secs. 663-664), graded by whether the access was aggravated by financial gain, another crime, a $5,000 information-value threshold, or legally protected information, and by whether information was obtained at all.
Penalty structure
Unauthorized computer access is graded in three tiers under 17 PNCA sections 3109-3111: a class B felony, fined up to this amount, for access aggravated by financial gain, furtherance of another crime, an information value over $5,000, or legally protected information; a class C felony, fined up to $10,000, for the same access without an aggravating factor; and a misdemeanor, fined up to $1,000, for access alone without obtaining information (17 PNCA sec. 651).
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Fixed cap
- 25,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Sections 3109 to 3111 define three grades of knowingly accessing a computer, computer system or computer network without authorization (section 3101(14): without the permission of an owner, lessor or rightful user). They state an offence and a grade of punishment and impose no duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record. Section 3108 says a person who causes access of a computer in one jurisdiction from another is deemed to have accessed it in each; it turns on where the computer sits, so it names no hook, and the penal jurisdiction rule in section 105 is a Title 17 general clause that these sections do not invoke.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 3101(14) defines accessing a computer, computer system, or computer network 'without authorization' as without the permission of, or in excess of the permission granted by, its owner, lessor, or rightful user, a permission-based test rather than one that turns on defeating a technical security measure.
Sections 3109 through 3111 grade unauthorized computer access into three tiers: a class B felony where the person knowingly accesses without authorization, obtains information, and the offense is aggravated by commercial or private financial gain, furtherance of another crime, an information value exceeding $5,000, or information legally protected against disclosure; a class C felony for the same access and obtaining of information without such an aggravating factor; and a misdemeanor for knowingly accessing without authorization alone, without obtaining information.
Because the offense's authorization test asks about the owner's permission rather than requiring proof that a security measure was defeated, whether reading a public, unauthenticated page is authorized has not been tested in a reported Palauan decision. The Act that enacted the chapter, Republic of Palau Public Law 9-21, takes effect ninety days after the President's approval, and no statement of the resulting day has been located.
When LexLint raises it
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