Considerations of criminal law and forensic science regarding the illegal access to a computer system

• Author: Adrian Cristian Moise
• Position: Faculty of Juridical, Economic and Administrative Sciences 'Spiru Haret' University of Bucharest, Romania
• Pages: 49-57

AGORA International Journal of JuridicalSciences, http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/aijjs

ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677

No. 2 (2017), pp. 49-57

CONSIDERATIONS OF CRIMINAL LAW AND FORENSIC SCIENCE

REGARDING THE ILLEGAL ACCESS TO A COMPUTER SYSTEM

A.C. MOISE

Adrian Cristian MOISE

Faculty of Juridical, Economic and Administrative Sciences

“Spiru Haret” University of Bucharest, Romania

*Correspondence: “Spiru Haret” University of Bucharest,Vasile Conta Street no.4, Craiova,

Romania

E-mail:adriancristian.moise@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Starting from the provisions of Article 2 of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime

and from the provisions of Article 3 of Directive 2013/40/EU on attacks against information

systems, the present study analyses how these provisions have been transposed into the text of

Article 360 of the Romanian Criminal Code. Illegal access to a computer system is a

criminal offence that aims to affect the patrimony of individuals or legal entities.

The illegal access to computer systems is accomplished with the help of the social engineering

techniques, the best known technique of this kind is the use of phishing threats. Typically,

phishing attacks will lead the recipient to a Web page designed to simulate the visual identity

of a target organization, and to gather personal information about the user, the victim having

knowledge of the attack.

KEYWORDS: illegal access; computer system; phishing; attack.

INTRODUCTION

The offence of illegal access to a computer system is provided by the Article 360 from

Chapter VI, entitled Offences against the safety and integrity of computer systems and data

from the Romanian Criminal Code. The legal text states:

“(1) Access, without right, to an information system, shall be punishable by imprisonment

from 3 months to 3 years or by fine.

(2) The act referred to in paragraph (1), committed in order to get computer data, and shall be

punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years.

(3) Should the act referred to in paragraph (1) was committed in relation to an information

system to which, through some procedures, devices or specialised programs, the access is

restricted or forbidden for certain categories of users, the punishment is imprisonment from 2

to 7 years”.

The offence of illegal access to an information system is stipulated in a simple form, which

prohibits the access without right to an information system (paragraph1) and two aggravating

variants, consisting in committing the act referred to in paragraph 1 in order to obtain

computer data (paragraph 2), as well as in committing the act referred to in paragraph 1 in

relation to an information system to which, through some procedures, devices or specialised

programs, the access is restricted or forbidden for certain categories of users (paragraph 3).

By access it is understood any successful interaction with an information system, computer or

mobile phone, entering the whole or just a part of the computer system

1

. Access without right to an

information system means, for the purpose of Article 35 (2) of Law no.161/2003

2

on some measures

1

Spiridon, IonuţCiprian (2008).Reflecţii cu privire la legislaţiaromânăîndomen iulcriminalităţiiinformatice,

[Reflections on the Romanian legislation on cybercrime], in Law Review no. 8, p. 243.

2

The Romanian Official Gazette no. 454 from the 21st of April 2003.