United Arab Emirates

Hacking is a crime under the Cyber Crimes Law. Articles 2 to 5 of this law penalize any person who enters without permission an electronic site, information system, information network or an information technology tool and remains in it illegally. The basic penalty is a fine of up to 300,000 dirhams but if the hacking were to damage, destroy, amend or delete any data the penalty increases to imprisonment for at least 6 months and a fine up to 750,000 dirhams against the perpetrator. To the extent, the data damaged is personal or the data or website was government related the penalty increases further. As with phishing, the UAE E-commerce Law also imposes penalties against the hacker