Computer crimes

The fact that informatics systems are incorporated in our lives with agradually increasing speed shapes the future of human as well as changingthe public life. This rapid improvement in informatics systems brings manynew legal merits into the public life. Some new criminal types started toappear together with the effective role of informatics systems in our lives.The damages incurred due to the crimes, which had been committedby using the informatics systems, obliged most of the countries to make newlegal regulations regarding thereto. As a matter of fact, in many countriesespecially those where these systems are commonly used, sanctions hadbeen imposed for the crimes committed in informatics sector. Beside thesenational regulations, the international organizations have made many usefulworks to avoid and impose sanctions on the informatics crimes and to findthe perpetrators. OECD, G8 Countries, European Council, United Nations,European Union are the leading organizations working within this scope.In Turkey, the rule maker had effected from comparative law,international works and European Union recommendations about informaticscrimes; and informatics crimes had been taken under sanction by beingregulated under the name ?Informatics Crimes? within the scope of TurkishCriminal Law (TCK) numbered 765 with the law dated 06th.06.1991 andnumbered 3756. The crime types in the previous TCK numbered 765 are asfollows: data capture crime (Article 525a/1), the crime of use, transfer andcopy of data for the purpose of damaging another person (Article 525a/2), thecrime of damage to data or data transaction (Article 525b/1), illegally benefitvia computer (Article 525b/2) and fraud in data (Article 525c).Besides, the rule maker had made an amendment to the TurkishIntellectual Property Law (FSEK) numbered 5846 with the Law dated07th.06.1995 and numbered 4110, and had included the informatics softwareand the data thereof into the definition of ?work?. With this respect, threetypes of crimes had been regulated in FSEK such as infringement of moralrights on the informatics software under Article 71, infringement of thefinancial rights on the informatics software under Article 72 and other crimesunder Article 73.Together with the Electronic Signature Law (E K) dated 15th.01.2004and numbered 5070, the validation of the electronic signature had beenaccepted with regard to the Turkish legal system. Creating and using fakesignature (in Article 16) and creating and using fake electronic certificate (inArticle 17) had been regulated as crime types.TCK numbered 5237 which had been accepted by the Grand NationalAssembly of Turkey (TBMM) on 26th.09.2004, published in the OfficialGazette numbered 25611 on 12th.10.2004 and entered into force on01st.06.2005 had abrogated the TCK numbered 765. Within the TenthSection of the Third Part of the Second Book of the TCK numbered 5237,four different articles had been regulated under the name ?InformaticsCrimes? among Articles 243 and 246. In the Section named informaticscrimes, crime types are regulated as the crime of illegally entering into orstanding in the informatics system (Article 243), blocking or destroying theoperation of the informatics system or destroying or changing the data(Article 244/1-2), illegally benefit via informatics system (Article 244/4), abuseof banks or credit cards (Article 245). The crimes are regulated under TCKbased on the legal value which they mainly protect.Besides, some crime types which can be qualified as informatics crimeare regulated in TCK under the section named ?crimes against the private lifeand hidden area of life? as follows: the crime of recording personal data(Article 135), illegally disclosing or capturing personal data (Article 136),destroying data (Article 138).Although the informatics crimes are basically regulated in TCKnumbered 5237 under the sections named ?Informatics Crimes? and ?Crimesagainst the private life and hidden area of life?, the crime types, which may becommitted by using informatics systems, are also regulated in TCK undervarious sections.Those are as follows: crime of blocking the communication (Article124), aspersion (Article 125), obscenity (Article 126), violating theconfidentiality of communication (Article 132), theft by using the informaticssystem (Article 142/2), swindling by using the informatics system (Article158/1 b.?f?).However, because of the fact that internet, as an information andcommunication tool, improves very rapidly, dominates with its technologicalcharacteristics and has an overall international connection, a basic law,which imposes punitive sanctions on the internet crimes, does not exist inTurkish law as well as the comparative law.Consequently, the fact that such a completely new and differentconcept had entered into the human?s life so rapidly and effectively, naturallybrought many new problems in its train. In order to fight with the informaticscrimes, it is needed to make international works, regulate laws meeting theneeds, and system owners to form a separate technical security system.Then, we can have a chance to success in fighting with the informaticscrimes.