Law / United States / 
South Carolina
South Carolina Computer Crime Act
S.C. Code Ann. §§ 16-16-10 to 16-16-40
In force since .
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Access restriction
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Ordinary, non-deceptive automated access to a South Carolina-connected public page does not by itself violate this chapter; the felony and misdemeanor offenses require accessing a computer, computer system, or computer network wilfully, knowingly, maliciously, and without authorization or for an unauthorized purpose, for the stated wrongful ends.
- Do not access, or cause to be accessed, a computer, computer system, or computer network without authorization to devise a scheme to defraud, obtain money or property by false pretenses, commit another crime, or to alter, damage, destroy, or modify data, programs, or software, or to introduce a computer contaminant.
- Do not engage in computer hacking, defined to include accessing a computer without express or implied authorization, using a port scanner or probe without permission, or using a computer, computer system, or computer network in a manner that exceeds any right or permission its owner granted; this is a separate misdemeanor offense regardless of any financial gain or loss.
- If you are convicted under this chapter, expect a separate civil action from the owner or lessee of the affected computer system for compensatory damages, restitution, and attorney's fees; this civil remedy does not arise independently of a criminal conviction.
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
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Computer crime in the first degree, where the gain or loss exceeds ten thousand dollars, is a felony punishable by a fine of not more than fifty thousand dollars or imprisonment of not more than five years, or both. Computer crime in the second degree, covering gain or loss between one thousand and ten thousand dollars or specified conduct such as denial of service or deprivation of possession, is a misdemeanor punishable on a first offense by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars or imprisonment of not more than one year, or both, rising to twenty thousand dollars or two years for a second or subsequent offense. Computer crime in the third degree, covering gain or loss of one thousand dollars or less, or computer hacking without regard to gain or loss, is a misdemeanor punishable on a first offense by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars or imprisonment of not more than thirty days, rising to two thousand dollars or two years for a second or subsequent offense.
Penalty structure
The fifty-thousand-dollar maximum fine applies to computer crime in the first degree. Computer crime in the second degree carries a lower cap of ten thousand dollars for a first offense, rising to twenty thousand dollars for a second or subsequent offense; computer crime in the third degree carries a cap of two hundred dollars for a first offense, rising to two thousand dollars for a second or subsequent offense.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Fixed cap
- 50,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Criminal prosecution proceeds through the ordinary state criminal process; the civil compensatory-damages action under Section 16-16-25 is privately enforced by the owner or lessee of the affected system, and runs only after a criminal conviction.
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does "express or implied authorization" in section 16-16-10(j)(1) cover a publicly accessible web page whose owner has not restricted access to it?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Sections 16-16-10 to 16-16-40 define terms (including computer hacking), set the graded computer crime offences, give a civil action after conviction, set county venue and preserve other criminal law. None requires a log or record. The venue section assigns a county and is not a territorial hook.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Sections 16-16-10 through 16-16-40 make it unlawful to wilfully, knowingly, and maliciously access a computer, computer system, or computer network without authorization or for an unauthorized purpose to devise a scheme to defraud, obtain money or property by fraud, commit another crime, or to alter, damage, destroy, or modify data, programs, software, or operation, or introduce a computer contaminant; a separate misdemeanor, computer hacking, reaches unauthorized access, port scanning, or exceeding a granted permission regardless of financial gain or loss.
The offense is graded in three degrees by the dollar amount of gain or loss, from a felony (first degree, gain or loss exceeding ten thousand dollars) down to a misdemeanor (third degree, gain or loss of one thousand dollars or less, or computer hacking alone), and each computer, system, or network affected by a violation is a separate offense.
The owner or lessee of an affected computer system may also bring a civil action for compensatory damages, restitution, and attorney's fees, but only against a person already convicted under this chapter.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web.
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