The legislature passed several amendments to the Criminal Code yesterday to toughen penalties for cybercrime in a bid to improve the country's ability to combat computer crime.
The revisions, proposed by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice, target hackers who design and spread computer viruses or worms or access other people's computers without their authorization.
One amendment states that a person is guilty of an offence if he or she has caused significant property losses to civilians or the government by producing a computer virus in attempt to impair other computers.
If convicted, the hacker would face a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment plus a fine of up to NT$200,000.
The revision was proposed in the light of virus attacks engineered by high-tech professionals, including Melissa, Trojan horses, Code Red and the CIH virus which paralyzed over 60 million computers worldwide on April 26, 1999.
Under the second amendment, a person who accesses another's computer by unauthorized use of the owner's password or via a network loophole could face up to three years in jail, plus a maximum fine of NT$100,000.
Under a third amendment, if a suspect is convicted of stealing, deleting or altering data from a computer belonging to another person, company or agency, and thereby causes damage to those computers, he or she could face a maximum of five years in jail and a fine of NT$200,000.
That amendment was proposed in response to the lack of a legal provision against deliberate Web-site intrusions -- a situation which gained importance after a high-school student hacked into the Presidential Office's Web site in March but could not be charged with any criminal offense.
"The proposed amendment was proposed since we realized that a malicious intrusion always causes huge manpower costs when network administrators have to plug the [system's] loophole and [repair] the damage left by the hacker," said Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南).
A fourth amendment stipulates that a person violates the Criminal Code if he or she purposely impairs another person's computer operations by paralyzing their ISP system through electromagnetic pulses or flooding their e-mailboxes with junk mail or "spam."
If convicted, a violator could receive up to three years in jail or a fine of NT$100,000.
Hackers who target government Web sites will get penalties that are one-and-one-half times the penalties stipulated in the new amendments.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
MEDICAL: The bills would also upgrade the status of the Ethical Guidelines Governing the Research of Human Embryos and Embryonic Stem Cell Research to law The Executive Yuan yesterday approved two bills to govern regenerative medicine that aim to boost development of the field. Taiwan would reach an important milestone in regenerative medicine development with passage of the regenerative medicine act and the regenerative medicine preparations ordinance, which would allow studies to proceed and treatments to be developed, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) told reporters at a news conference after a Cabinet meeting. Regenerative treatments have been used for several conditions, including cancer — by regenerating blood cells — and restoring joint function in soft tissue, Wang said. The draft legislation requires regenerative treatments
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese