Cybercrime Law, Unauthorised Access to a Computer System
Lei n.º 8/IX/2017, art. 6.º (acesso ilícito), de 20 de Março (Lei do Cibercrime)
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.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 7 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not access a computer system without legal permission or authorization from its owner or another rights holder, and do not produce, sell, distribute, or introduce a device, program, or code intended to produce that unauthorised access.
- Reading a page a system's own operator has made available without defeating a security measure has not itself been located as a violation of this article.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Base unauthorised access draws up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to 120 days (Article 6(1)); access achieved by violating security rules draws up to three years' imprisonment or a fine (Article 6(3)); access through which the agent learns a commercial or industrial secret, legally protected confidential data, or obtains a considerably high benefit draws one to five years' imprisonment (Article 6(4)). These are day-fine terms; the statute does not itself state the escudo value of a day-fine unit, so no penalty_structure amount is recorded.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Ministério Público (public prosecution), through the ordinary criminal courts; Article 6(6) makes the base offence dependent on a complaint
What it reaches
Obligation class
Access restriction
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 6(1) punishes with imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 120 days anyone who, intentionally and without legal permission or without being authorised for that purpose by the owner or another rights holder of the system or part of it, in any way accesses a computer system.
Article 6(2) punishes the same conduct where a person produces, sells, distributes, disseminates, or introduces into one or more computer systems a device, program, executable set of instructions, code, or other computer data intended to produce that unauthorised access.
Article 6(3) raises the penalty to up to three years' imprisonment or a fine where the access is achieved through violation of security rules, and Article 6(4) raises it to one to five years' imprisonment where the agent thereby learns a commercial or industrial secret or legally protected confidential data, or obtains a considerably high patrimonial benefit or advantage.
Article 6(5) makes an attempt punishable, and Article 6(6) makes criminal proceedings for the base offences under paragraphs 1, 3 and 5 dependent on a complaint. Article 2 defines a computer system as any device or interconnected set of devices carrying out automated processing of computer data, together with the network supporting communication between them and the data stored, processed, retrieved, or transmitted by them.
The Law was approved by the Assembleia Nacional on 25 January 2017, promulgated by the President of the Republic on 3 March 2017, and published in the Boletim Oficial of 20 March 2017; its own Article 33 provides that it enters into force 30 days after publication.
When LexLint raises it
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Read the law
Text of Lei n.º 8/IX/2017 de 20 de Março (Lei do Cibercrime)
reproduced in the Assembleia Nacional de Cabo Verde's own compiled Coletânea de Legislação, Vol. I, Leis - Parte I 2016-2017