Criminal Code, unauthorised computer access and illegal appropriation of data
Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, Law No. HO-199-N (2021), Arts. 359, 362
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 1 July 2022.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not penetrate a computer, computer system or network without permission arising from law, contract or other legitimate basis; reading a public, unauthenticated page has not been held to fall within this prohibition, since the offence also requires that the access negligently cause destruction, alteration, damage or copying of data or other material harm.
- Do not intercept or appropriate computer data that is not intended for general use, without permission under law, contract or other legitimate basis, for the purpose of using it or making it available to others; data a service makes available for general, public use falls outside a plain reading of this provision.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Article 359(1) (base tier) carries imprisonment of up to one year, alongside a fine of up to ten times the statutory base calculation unit, public works, or restriction of liberty as alternatives; the aggravated tier at Art. 359(2) raises imprisonment to up to two years and the fine to up to twenty times the base unit. Article 362(1) (base tier) carries imprisonment of up to two years; Art. 362(2) (aggravated, including obtaining legally protected data, mercenary motive, or use of official authority) raises this to two to five years; Art. 362(3) (committed by a criminal organisation, or causing especially large damage) raises it to three to six years.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Article 359 criminalises penetrating a computer, computer system or computer network by gaining access without permission, where the person has no such right under law, contract or other legitimate basis, and the act negligently causes destruction, alteration, damage, distortion, blocking, copying of data, or other material harm (base tier, up to one year's imprisonment); an aggravated tier applies where the act circumvents a protective system, uses special technical means, official position, group commission, targets data protected by law, or negligently causes especially large damage (up to two years).
Article 362 separately criminalises intercepting or appropriating data stored on a computer, system, network or other computer equipment that is not intended for general use, without permission under law, contract or other legitimate basis, done for the purpose of using that data or making it available to others (base tier, up to two years' imprisonment), with aggravated tiers up to five years where the act is also accompanied by unauthorised penetration, targets legally protected data, is done for mercenary motive, or intercepts data in transit, and up to six years where committed by a criminal organisation or causing especially large damage.
Because Art. 362's base offence is scoped to data 'not intended for general use', appropriating data a website makes available to the general public sits outside a plain reading of the provision.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_webtrains_models
Read the law
official consolidated Armenian-language text, Armenian Legal Information System (ARLIS)
quotations are the researcher's own working translation, not an official translation