Brit infosec firms urge PM Boris to reform the Computer Misuse Act

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Credits: The Register

A group of British infosec companies has written to UK prime minister Boris Johnson asking him to reform the Computer Misuse Act 1990, saying the act “has failed to keep pace with technological and market developments, inadvertently prohibiting a large component of contemporary threat intelligence research.”

The companies, comprising NCC Group, Orpheus Cyber, Context Information Security and Nettitude, urged the winner of the Conservative Party’s recent internal leadership contest to bring about “legislative reform to bring cyber crime legislation in step with other regimes”.

Key among the companies’ demands for reform is the introduction of “statutory defences that apply to accredited professionals who act ethically, in the public interest, to detect and prevent criminal activity.”

The letter came after The Register revealed in May this year that while 90 per cent of hacking prosecutions last year were successful, the odds of a prison sentence were very low.

The letter said, in part:

Legislation currently forces cyber security specialists to act with one hand tied behind their backs. Reforming the Computer Misuse Act would enable us to learn more about an attacker’s tactics and identify additional victims, addressing current barriers that often halt our defence investigations so as not to break the law. More modern legislation exists in other jurisdictions – countries which we actively compete with in the global cyber security market. Failure to modernise our laws risks the increasing demand for cyber security services being met outside the UK.

Its signatories, all C-suite execs from the named firms, added: “We believe removing current legislative restraints, and offering certainty to the industry, would significantly unlock the growth of the UK cyber threat intelligence sector, while allowing industry to better support law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”

Researchers have long complained that the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) inhibits research because of broad wording that does not make it completely clear what is and what is not illegal in the fast-moving world of infosec. While no statute could be exhaustively prescriptive about what can and cannot be done, the companies say that the time is ripe to give protection to bona fide researchers.

Ollie Whitehouse, global chief technical officer at NCC Group, said in a statement to The Register: “We’re proud to be the driving force behind the necessary reform to the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) – an essential but outdated legislation, which currently restricts many industry specialists like ourselves from carrying out crucial threat intelligence work. Cyber security is a global issue, so it’s vital that the UK is able to compete on a level playing field with our international colleagues.”

The act was last amended five years ago, causing some severe worries among human rights-watchers about harsher sentences being passed.

In its original form, the CMA was passed into law following the escapades of a couple of journalists in the late 1980s who managed to severely embarrass BT and access Prince Phillip’s Prestel email account.