What Is the Crime of Unlawful Access to an Information System?
What Is the Offense of Unlawful Access to an Information System?
In this article, I would like to discuss the offense of unlawful access to an information system. This crime is regulated in the tenth section of the second book of the Turkish Penal Code, titled "Special Provisions," which covers "Crimes Against Information Systems."
Accessing an information system
Article 243- (1) Any person who unlawfully enters the whole or a part of an information system, or continues to remain therein, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for up to one year or a judicial fine.
(2) In the event that the acts defined in the paragraph above are committed against systems that can be utilized in exchange for a fee, the penalty to be imposed shall be reduced by up to half.
(3) If, due to this act, the data contained in the system is destroyed or altered, a sentence of imprisonment from six months to two years shall be imposed.
(4) Any person who unlawfully monitors, by technical means without entering the system, the data transfers occurring within an information system or between information systems shall be sentenced to imprisonment from one year to three years.
The legal value protected by the offense of unlawful access to an information system;
In this crime, primarily the privacy of individuals' private lives, the sanctity of secrets, and freedom of communication are protected. The elements contained in an information system belong to the legally protected personal sphere of the owner. Without the consent of the rights holder, this area cannot be accessed without authorization. As another interest, the security of the information system is also taken under protection.
The material elements of the offense of unlawful access to an information system are entering the whole or a part of the information system unlawfully and continuing to remain there.
Entering (accessing) an information system means reaching or becoming included in the content of the whole or a part of the information system (hardware, components, data stored in the installed system, directories, traffic, content-related data).
Continuing to remain in an information system refers to the perpetrator, who has accessed the whole or a part of the information system, being present in this virtual environment to an extent that demonstrates the seriousness of the act.
The act of entering an information system can be achieved by reaching it over a network or manually.
The modus operandi (methods of commission) of cybercrimes is also of importance. Bypassing firewalls of information systems, reaching system information, data contained in the system, or programs without the user's knowledge, and most importantly, doing this by leaving minimal evidence and traces, require some special and technical methods for the commission of these crimes.
Examples of these methods are referred to as: scavenging, eavesdropping, data diddling, trojan horse, scanning, super zapping, salami techniques, trap doors, asynchronous attacks, network worms, computer viruses, unsolicited electronic messages (spam), web page theft and web page redirection, piggybacking, logic bombs, masquerading, rabbits, and chameleon.
The perpetrator of the crime; can be anyone. Generally, the perpetrators of these crimes are called hackers or crackers.
The victim of the crime; can be anyone. Legal entities can also be victims.
The qualified element of the crime requiring a heavier penalty is regulated in Article 243/3 of the Turkish Penal Code; "If, due to this act, the data contained in the system is destroyed or altered, a sentence of imprisonment from six months to two years shall be imposed."
The mental elements of the offense of unlawful access to an information system; this crime can be committed intentionally.
The investigation procedure of the crime; the investigation of the crime is conducted ex officio.
I hope you never encounter the type of crime I have tried to summarize above, neither as a perpetrator nor as a victim, and I would like to remind you that if you see or hear about this type of crime as an eyewitness, you must report it to law enforcement as a civic duty. Wishing you healthy and peaceful days.