Codice Penale Art. 615-ter, Unauthorized Access to a Computer or Telematic System
Codice Penale, art. 615-ter, as amended by Legge 28 giugno 2024, n. 90
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 17 July 2024.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not access, or remain within after being excluded, a computer or telematic system protected by security measures without the right-holder's consent.
- Expect a materially higher penalty range if the access is achieved by a public official or an unlicensed private investigator abusing their position, through threats or violence, or if it damages, destroys, or interrupts the system or its data.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Imprisonment up to three years for the base offence (comma 1, prosecutable only on complaint); two to ten years for the aggravated forms of comma 2 (ex officio); three to ten years, or four to twelve years, where the system is of military, public-order, public-security, health, or civil-protection interest (commi 3-4).
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Whoever abusively enters a computer or telematic system protected by security measures, or remains within it against the express or tacit will of whoever has the right to exclude them, is punished with imprisonment up to three years (comma 1); this base offence is prosecutable only on the victim's complaint.
Imprisonment rises to two to ten years where the offender is a public official or public-service employee abusing their powers or duties, or a person who also unlawfully practises as a private investigator, or an operator abusing their access to the system; where the offender uses threats or violence against people or property or is visibly armed; or where the offence causes destruction, damage, removal, inaccessibility, or interruption of the system, or destruction or damage of the data, information or programmes it holds (comma 2); these aggravated cases are prosecuted ex officio.
Where an offence under comma 1 or comma 2 reaches a system of military, public-order, public-security, health or civil-protection interest, imprisonment rises respectively to three to ten years or four to twelve years (commi 3-4). Legge 90/2024 raised the comma-2 introductory penalty range and amended comma 3, effective 17 July 2024; an earlier text of this article, reproduced in older secondary commentary, shows the comma-2 range as one to five years before that amendment.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_web
Read the law
official consolidated text of Codice Penale art. 615-ter, Brocardi.it