Cybercrimes Act unpacked

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the Cybercrimes Bill into law, bringing SA’s cybersecurity laws in line with the rest of the world. The Bill, which is now an Act of Parliament, creates offences for and criminalises, amongst others, the disclosure of data messages which are harmful. Other offences include cyber fraud, forgery, extortion and theft of incorporeal property. Ahmore Burger-Smidt, director and head of Data Privacy Practice at Werksmans Attorneys said the Bill created a broad ambit for the application of the Cybercrimes Act which defined ‘data’ as electronic representations of information in any form’. A Business Tech report notes that a person who is convicted of an offence under the Cybercrimes Act is liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period of up to 15 years or to both a fine and such imprisonment as may be ordered in terms of the offence. Burger-Smidt said the Cybercrimes Act would be of particular importance to electronic communications service providers and financial institutes as it imposed obligations upon them to assist in the investigation of cybercrime.