CyberUp Campaign hosts expert-led briefing on the Criminal Justice Bill in the House of Lords

Last week, the CyberUp Campaign hosted an expert-led drop-in event in the House of Lords in partnership with Lord Clement Jones, a long-time supporter of the CyberUp Campaign. Our event focused on briefing members of the House of Lords on why reforming the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (CMA) must be at the centre of 21st century criminal justice, ahead of the Criminal Justice Bill. We were delighted to be joined by industry representatives including Katharina Sommer, Group Head of Government Affairs & Analyst Relations at NCC Group, Rob Dartnall, UK Chair of CREST and Professor John Childs, Professor of Criminal Law at University of Birmingham and Co-founder of the Criminal Law Reform Now Network.

The Criminal Justice Bill introduces new powers for law enforcement to suspend domain names and IP addresses used for criminal purposes. While the CyberUp Campaign recognises the need to address IP takedown powers, we strongly believe that any updates should not be delivered without the introduction of a defence to protect those actually undertaking legitimate cybersecurity activities. The CyberUp Campaign has been clear that, without a legal defence, cyber security researchers can still face spurious legal action for reporting security risks to a company which can decide on a whim to ignore its vulnerability disclosure policy. This demonstrates that offences and defences cannot be considered in isolation, making the Bill the perfect vehicle for reform.

Ahead of the upcoming Report Stage of the Criminal Justice Bill in the House of Commons, we were delighted to see an amendment tabled by the Labour Party to introduce a public interest defence to the CMA, which highlights how our outdated cyber laws are holding back our cybersecurity professionals in their vital work protecting the UK from cyber criminals.

Many thanks to everyone who attended our event. We were grateful to meet with a range of cross-party peers, who expressed their interest in and support for our calls for reform of the outdated Computer Misuse Act and look forward to continuing our engagement around the Criminal Justice Bill as it progresses.