Law / United States / 
Pennsylvania
Unlawful use of computer and other computer crimes (hacking and similar offenses)
In force since .
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Place of effect
- Obligation class
- Access restriction
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not intentionally access or exceed authorization to access a computer, computer network, database, or World Wide Web site without authorization, or in doing so alter, interfere with the operation of, damage, or destroy it; bare unauthorized access is itself an offense here.
- A reasonable belief that the owner authorized, or would have authorized, the conduct is a defense; authorization includes implied consent by trade usage, course of dealing, course of performance, or commercial programming practices.
- This statute does not override or displace an ordinary contract or license governing your access to a Pennsylvania-connected computer, network, or database; terms-of-service enforcement is a separate, civil track.
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.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-09Information Security
- GAI-RISK-12Value Chain and Component Integration
- OWASP LLM Top 10
- LLM03:2026Excessive Agency
- OWASP Agentic Top 10
- ASI03Identity and Privilege Abuse
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-018Agent Authority Least Privilege Framework
- AIR-PREV-023Agentic System Credential Protection Framework
- ETSI EN 304 223
- 5.1.2-6Access the AI system gets to other systems and data sources is minimal and risk assessed.
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
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Each offense under sections 7611, 7612, 7613, 7615, and 7616 is graded as a felony of the third degree; unlawful duplication under section 7614 is a felony of the third degree, one grade higher when the economic value of the duplicated material exceeds $2,500.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Sections 7611 to 7616 create the offences of unlawful use of a computer, disruption of service, computer theft, unlawful duplication, computer trespass and distribution of a computer virus. None requires a log or record. The no-duty-to-monitor clause (section 7623) belongs to the child sexual abuse material subchapter and is outside this row.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
A person commits unlawful use of a computer if, intentionally and without authorization, the person accesses or exceeds authorization to access, alters, interferes with the operation of, damages, or destroys a computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, computer database, or World Wide Web site (18 Pa.C.S. § 7611(a)(2)); bare unauthorized access to such a resource is itself the offense, with no separate showing of malice, deception, or resulting harm required.
Neighboring sections separately criminalize disruption of service including denial-of-service attacks (§ 7612), computer theft of data taken with intent to deprive the owner of it (§ 7613), unlawful duplication of computer data or software (§ 7614), computer trespass carried out with intent to remove or alter data, cause a malfunction, or effect an unauthorized funds transfer (§ 7615), and distribution of a computer virus (§ 7616).
Section 7605 provides a defense where the actor reasonably believed the owner had authorized or would have authorized the conduct, and defines authorization to include express or implied consent, including by trade usage, course of dealing, course of performance, or commercial programming practices.
Section 7606 states that nothing in this subchapter interferes with or prohibits the terms or conditions of a contract or license governing a computer, computer network, or database, preserving ordinary contract-based terms-of-service enforcement as a separate track from this statute. The chapter was added , effective 60 days later.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web.
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