Lawyers defend Cayman Islands laws to deal with hacking

GEORGETOWN, Cayman Islands, Nov 28, CMC – Legal officials in the Cayman Islands say appropriate criminal, civil and regulatory remedies are available in the British Overseas Territory to protect people from illegal data hacks.
In a joint statement, the Cayman Islands Law Society and the Caymanian Bar Association said the island has modern, internationally accepted legislation providing for computer misuse offences and data protection.
“Such legislation is modelled on UK and/or EU legislation to protect against such illegal acts, and to ensure that appropriate criminal, civil and regulatory remedies are available to counter them.”
They said that  for many years the Cayman Islands has had robust legislative measures to enable the police to investigate, and the authorities to prosecute, computer hackers and others who seek unauthorised access to other people’s computer systems.
“The Computer Misuse Law (CML) is modelled on the UK’s Computer Misuse Act and creates a number of computer-hacking and related offences. The provisions of the CML are extra-territorial, such that a person who commits an offence from outside of the Cayman Islands in respect of computer systems in the Cayman Islands may be prosecuted here.”
In addition, the legal officials point out that Data Protection Law, 2017 (DPL) has been enacted and will come into force in January 2019, after EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into EU law.
They said that an offence under the CML or the DPL could also form a predicate offence under the Proceeds of Crime Law (POCL) where proceeds include fees for selling stolen information, derived from the criminal conduct.
“Third party acquirers of the information could also be subject to inchoate offences under POCL, including aiding, abetting or conspiring with another to commit the offence.
“Additionally, victims who have been subject to unauthorised access to their computer systems and misuse of information obtained are also able to bring civil actions in the Cayman Islands, including for breach of confidence. Victims may also obtain injunctions to restrain further unauthorised disclosures and seek appropriate damages.”