Costa Rica: Hacking and Child Pornography Now Punishable

Insulting or defaming someone by using a fake or anonymous online profile, "hacking" bank accounts or personal information or the possession or manipulation of pornographic images of children are some of the activities that are now punishable by law.



Presidenta Laura Chinchilla signed the document on Tuesday that would will order the behaviours that are already punishable under the current legal framework, only this adapts it to the information highway, the internet.

The penalty for some of the examples listed is between three and eight years prison.

An example of an activity that is now punishable is opening an account of another person on the social networks.

The president of the Cámara de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (Camtic), Alexander Mora, acknowledged that police is not sufficiently trained to chase or control hacking or internet crimes. However, he noted that it is expected that the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública promotes the creation of special unit to deal with computer crimes, and invited universities to open courses to catch digital criminals.