complained that it was introduced hastily, was poorly thought out, and that intention was often difficult to prove, with the bill inadequately differentiating "joyriding" hackers like Gold and Schifreen from serious computer criminals.

The Act has nonetheless become a model from which several other countries, including Canada and the Republic of Ireland, have drawn inspiration when subsequently drafting their own information security laws, as it is seen "as a robust and flexible piece of legislation in terms of dealing with cybercrime".

Robert Schifreen and Stephen Gold, using conventional home computers and modems in late 1984 and early 1985, gained unauthorised access to British Telecom's Prestel interactive viewdata service.

Armed with this information, the pair explored the system, even gaining access to the personal message box of Prince Philip.

Their counsel cited the lack of evidence showing the two had attempted to obtain material gain from their exploits, and claimed that the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act had been misapplied to their conduct.

[4] Lord Justice Brandon said: We have accordingly come to the conclusion that the language of the Act was not intended to apply to the situation which was shown to exist in this case.

The Procrustean attempt[5] to force these facts into the language of an Act not designed to fit them produced grave difficulties for both judge and jury which we would not wish to see repeated.

The appellants' conduct amounted in essence, as already stated, to dishonestly gaining access to the relevant Prestel data bank by a trick.

In one featured case, a "developer of bespoke systems in the Midlands" activated a time lock on a piece of software over a dispute with a client about an unpaid bill.

[citation needed] Such an amendment might also introduce a new offence of "making information available with intent", i.e. publicly disclosing a password for someone's phone or computer so that others can access it illegally.

[32] She also launched a Call for Information on the Act that seeks views on whether there is activity causing harm in the area covered by the Act that is not adequately covered by the offences, including whether the legislation is fit for use following the technological advances since the CMA was introduced, and any other suggestions on how the legislative response to cyber crime could be strengthened.

In November 2019, Dame Lynne Owens, Director General of the National Crime Agency (NCA), warned that "the Computer Misuse Act went through Parliament at a time when cyber wasn't the tool that it is now is to enable all sorts of crimes like fraud" and talked about plans to introduce reforms to make sure the law was "fit for purpose in the modern age".

The Campaign has called for two key amendments: On 29 June 2020, to celebrate the Act's 30th birthday, the CyberUp Campaign wrote an open letter to the prime minister on behalf of a number of cyber security industry figures to highlight the Act's outdatedness in a time of rapid digital advancement.

While the government response to the report said that the Act was regularly reviewed to determine the benefits of legislative change, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Lisa Nandy, highlighted in January 2021 that no progress had been made towards implementing the recommendation.

on the Computer Misuse Act, which was the first piece of work to quantify and analyse the views of the wider UK security community.

Furthermore, 91 per cent of businesses that responded to the report’s survey suggested they had been put at a competitive disadvantage by the Act, and that reform would allow their organisation to reap significant productivity improvements, growth and resilience benefits.