Law / United States / 
New Mexico
Computer Crimes Act, unauthorized computer use
In force.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not knowingly, willfully and without authorization, or in excess of an authorization obtained, access, use, take, transfer, conceal, obtain, copy or retain possession of a computer, computer network, or computer property or service connected to New Mexico; a violation is graded by the dollar value of the resulting damage, from a petty misdemeanor at two hundred fifty dollars or less up to a second degree felony above twenty thousand dollars.NIST AI RMFMAP 4.1
- Do not alter, damage, disrupt or destroy computer property or a computer service, or introduce data known to be false with intent to harm another's property or financial interests.no control in the NIST AI RMF
- Nothing in the Act's own text exempts ordinary, non-disruptive automated access to a publicly available page from the authorization requirement, and no New Mexico case confirms how automated access to a public page is treated under it.
- A person found guilty must also pay restitution for financial loss, in addition to any other punishment, forfeiture or fine.
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
Computer access with intent to defraud or embezzle (Section 30-45-3), computer abuse (Section 30-45-4), and unauthorized computer use (Section 30-45-5) are each graded by the dollar value of the resulting damage: a petty misdemeanor at two hundred fifty dollars or less, a misdemeanor above two hundred fifty dollars but not more than five hundred dollars, a fourth degree felony above five hundred dollars but not more than two thousand five hundred dollars, a third degree felony above two thousand five hundred dollars but not more than twenty thousand dollars, and a second degree felony above twenty thousand dollars. Introducing false data with intent to harm under Section 30-45-4(B) is a fourth degree felony regardless of value.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
N.M. Stat. Ann. § 30-45-5 makes unauthorized computer use an offense when a person knowingly, willfully and without authorization, or beyond the authorization obtained, accesses, uses, takes, transfers, conceals, obtains, copies or retains possession of a computer, computer network, computer property or computer service. That is a prohibition on conduct, and the section imposes no duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record. It names no territorial hook.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
The Computer Crimes Act's definitions section, Section 30-45-2, defines access, computer, computer network, computer property, computer service and related terms broadly, and the Act then creates three offenses. Section 30-45-3 punishes computer access with intent to defraud or embezzle.
Section 30-45-4 punishes computer abuse: altering, damaging, disrupting or destroying computer property or a computer service, or introducing data known to be false with intent to harm another's property or financial interests.
Section 30-45-5 separately punishes unauthorized computer use: knowingly, willfully and without authorization, or exceeding the scope of an authorization obtained, accessing, using, taking, transferring, concealing, obtaining, copying or retaining possession of a computer, computer network, computer property, computer service or computer system.
Each of these three offenses is graded solely by the dollar value of the damage to the computer property or computer service, from a petty misdemeanor at two hundred fifty dollars or less through a misdemeanor, a fourth degree felony, a third degree felony, up to a second degree felony above twenty thousand dollars; the Act does not add a separate, higher-graded bare-access offense the way some peer states do.
Section 30-45-6 allows prosecution under other law in addition to the Act and requires restitution for financial loss in addition to any other punishment. Section 30-45-7 subjects computer property, equipment, materials, conveyances and proceeds used in a violation to forfeiture under the Forfeiture Act.
No New Mexico case was located applying the Act to an automated web-scraping or bulk-data-collection fact pattern, and nothing in the Act's text exempts ordinary, non-disruptive automated access to a publicly available page from the authorization requirement. The codified text's history note for Section 30-45-5 reads Laws 1989, ch. 215, § 5 and Laws 2006, ch. 29, § 24, and no day on which Section 30-45-5 came into force has been located.
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