7. Legislation

It is against the law to distribute a virus to others.

The law which covers this area is called The Computer Misuse Act (1990). It also covers various computer crimes such as Hacking, computer fraud as well as the deliberate spread of viruses.

This law specifies a virus as: 'unauthorised modification of the contents of a computer, impairing the operation of any program or reliability of data'.

Anyone caught distributing viruses knowingly faces an unlimited fine and up to a five year prison sentence.