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.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
RSS