Unauthorised access offences

Unauthorised access means gaining, or attempting to gain, access to computer material — a device, an account, a folder or a whole system — without permission, when the person knows the access is not authorised. It covers trying as well as succeeding: nobody has to get in for the offence to happen.

Why a failed attempt still counts

The offence is complete the moment someone tries, knowing they have no right to be there. The owner does not need to lose data or money, and a wrong guess does not make the person innocent.

For example, a student at a youth club edits the web address of the club's booking page to reach its admin area. The page refuses and shows an error, but they knew they had no permission and were trying to get in — so the offence has been committed even though nothing opened.

Ways it can happen

• Sitting at a classroom computer a teacher has left signed in and opening the folder holding next week's test.
• Signing in to a neighbour's home router with the default admin password printed on the sticker underneath it, then changing its settings.
• Guessing the PIN on someone else's tablet and reading their messages.

The route in might be another person's login details, password-cracking software or an unlocked machine. All of these are the same offence because of one shared fact: the person knows the access is not authorised. Weak protection does not make access allowed — permission is what matters.

Access with intent to commit further offences

This is the more serious offence: getting into a computer without permission and doing it in order to commit another crime, or to make one easier. That crime could be theft (copying a company's customer list and selling it to a rival), fraud, blackmail or harassment (using someone else's account to send cruel messages to their contacts).

It is punished more harshly because the break-in is only the first step — the person is using the access to cause far greater harm, so the law looks at the plan behind the access as well as the access itself.