IP Address Forgers May face 3-Year Jail, Dh2M Fine in UAE
ABU DHABI: The UAE’s Federal National Council (FNC) is likely to review this month a draft law proposing more than three years in prison and a fine of up to Dh2 million for IP address forgery with criminal intent, according to a media report.
The bill, which introduces changes in Federal Law No 5 of 2012 on combating cyber crimes, seeks to crack down on people using a fraudulent computer network protocol address with criminal intent, reported Gulf News.
Under the current law, IP address forgery is a minor offence punishable with a jail term of between 24 hours and three years, and a fine of up to Dh500,000, the report said.
IP address forgery, also known as IP address spoofing, or a host file hijack, is a hijacking technique in which a cracker masquerades as a trusted host to conceal his identity, spoof a website, hijack browsers, or gain access to a network, it added.
The hijacker reportedly obtains the IP address of a legitimate host and alters packet headers so that the legitimate host appears to be the source.
“The proposed amendment shows that the UAE authorities are keen to crack down on so-called IP spoofing by imposing harsher penalties for offenders,” Dino Wilkinson, legal expert in Abu Dhabi, was quoted as saying by the Dubai-based news portal.
Wilkinson added that the relevant article states that it is an offence to use a fraudulent computer network protocol address by using a false address or third party address for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery.
It is therefore important to note that there must be a crime committed or concealed, in addition to the IP address spoofing activity, for a person to be liable under this provision of the law, the report pointed out.
This could be a hacking or denial of service attack, for example, which are criminalised under other provisions of the cyber crimes law, the Gulf News report said.