Federal Law nº 14,155/2021 brought an ending to the discussion related to the criminal classification of a well-known fraud nowadays, the ransomware.
This scam consists on the breaching and the blocking of all information system by a hacker, followed by a ransom request so that the data can be released. Often, the victim are companies, resulting in great losses since all company’s data remain blocked until the ransom is paid to the hacker. For this reason, it is very important to maintain a backup of the information and use a good antivirus program.
The Law foresees penalty of imprisonment from 1 up to 4 years for those who “break into other’s computing device, in order to obtain, tamper with or destroy data or information without authorization from the owner of the device or to install any vulnerability in order to obtain any unlawful advantages.” The penalty is raised from 1/3 up to 2/3 in case there are economic losses for the victim.
Curiously, the Law established the need for the victim to explicitly request the opening of a Police investigation, so anyone who is a potential victim of such crime must go in person to the Police Station of reach out to a lawyer for assistance.
This same Law modified some other articles of the Brazilian Penal Code, creating the crime of electronic fraud, a special type of fraud, through which the offender uses information obtained from any electronic device. Furthermore, the Law provided greater penalties for those who utilize any electronic device to commit a theft.
As it can be seen, the Legislator created new mechanisms to prevent electronic crimes, adjusting the law to the new reality, since they are more frequent each and every day.
