SANTIAGO – President Piñera signed today the Computer Crimes law, or ley de Delitos Informático. Together with a law to protect personal data, the government aims to improve the cybersecurity in the country. Various Chilean banks and institutions have been suffering from digital attacks over the last months.
Whether the goal was obtaining personal information such as RUT´s and passwords or just robbing large amounts of money, both national and international groups of hackers managed to break into systems of Chilean banks over the last months. Groups carrying names as “The Shadow Brokers” and “The Pirate Raft” showed the vulnerability and the need for better digital protection of personal details.
Through both the Computer Crimes- and the Personal Data Protection Law the Chilean government now seeks to improve the cybersecurity in the country, as well as optimize the national coordination in case of computer hacks. President Piñera acknowledged in a press moment that the law is very much needed. “We are in a vulnerable situation,” he admitted. “Cybercrime is a real, latent threat”.
The Computer Crimes Law identifies seven types of computer crimes, that will be punished with either fines or prison sentences, depending on the seriousness of the crime. Among the cybercrimes are computer disruption, information interception, hacking and computer fraud. The Personal Data Protection law seeks to modernize the digital infrastructure of the Chilean government. Following the law, each public service must have a person in charge of cybersecurity.
Editor-In-Chief Boris van der Spek is the founder of Chile Today.