THE SENATE on Friday passed a far-reaching piece of legislation to crack down on persons involved in computer-related crimes.

Members of the Upper House gave the nod to the cybercrime bill with six amendments.

The cybercrime law provides for criminal sanctions against persons who gain access to computer systems and data without permission. It also captures crimes facilitated by the misuse of computer systems and data.

Leader of Government Business in the Senate and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne, who piloted the bill, said Jamaica had experienced several instances of cybercrimes which were multiplying.

Long awaited

She told her colleagues that the business community had been calling for this law for years.

Lightbourne highlighted the lottery scam in Montego Bay, involving the theft of personal information of people in the United States from computers.

"This information was then used to trick persons to send money to criminals in Jamaica," she pointed out.

The attorney general also referred to a case where the computer network of a telecommunication company was hacked into and millions of dollars worth of credit was stolen.

"There have also been reports of a number of corporate entities which have been buying information stolen from competing business by hackers," she said.

According to Lightbourne, an offence such as this would attract severe penalties under the cybercrime law.

Employees who provide data to a third party for criminal offence would face serious sanctions under the new legislation.

"This is apparently what happens in the lotto scam, in that data which include personal information on persons in the US and elsewhere was stolen from data processors in MoBay free zone and passed on to criminals." She said this information was then used to carry out fraudulent schemes.

Opposition Senator Mark Golding suggested several changes to the bill, which the Government accepted.

Amendments left out

However, some of Golding's proposed amendments were not included as the government side indicated that they would be considered when the bill was being reviewed in two years' time.

The opposition senator also queried why the bill did not address the issue of spam or unsolicited email.

Government Senator Tom Tavares-Finson said the problem of spam was dealt with in the Electronic Transaction Act 2006.

He said the legislation would send a message to business people that "we are creating an environment where businesses can be conducted efficiently and securely".

The bill will now return to the House of Representatives for a vote on the amendments.