Electronic Data & Information Espionage: Civil or Criminal Liability?

Abstract

From time immemorial, every country has had some crucial and vital information regarding its national security and interests. If the information was revealed to the unqualified, the subject would have been penalized as a criminal and called as a spy. Today by entering into the electronic government environment, significant amount of information about the country, protection of which is directly linked to the national security, is being exchanged or kept in cyberspace. With regards to the significance of the issue, according to the Islamic Penal Code (computer crime chapter) approved in 2009, any act in the cyberspace environment for the purpose of computer spying is considered as an illegal act and the same would be considered as the material evidence of the committed crime in the court of law and will be dealt with accordingly. Hence some new regulatory measures are necessary in IPC in order to have common grounds for the terms of dealing with the electronic espionage.

Keywords: National Security - National interests - Computer crime - Cyberspace - Computer spy