Abstract

The article analyses the characteristics of a computer crime identified as hacking, typified in Art. 267 of the Criminal Code. This analysis is all the more necessary because the Criminal Code has been amended as a result of adjusting Polish criminal law with respect to typification of computer crime to the Council Framework Decision of 24 February 2005 on attacks against information systems. The formula for criminalization of hacking adopted in 1997 failed to fulfil its elementary function allowing to persecute the offenders guilty of obtaining illegal access to an ITC system or a computer break-in. In its previous wording the provision assumed that violation of privacy occurred upon illegitimate obtainment of information, i.e. in fact upon reading it. The requirement to prove that the offender obtained information was the fundamental deficiency of that provision. This situation has been radically changed by the said amendment of the Criminal Code. The amendment of Art. 267 § 1 of the Criminal Code makes it now possible to penalize varios types of hacker behaviours.