Law by Decree No. 10 of 2018 on Cybercrime, Unauthorised Access and Computer Interference
Law by Decree No. 10 of 2018 on Cybercrime, arts. 4-9
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 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not access a website, system, network, or means of information technology without authorisation, or continue accessing it after learning the access is unauthorised, or exceed the scope of authorised access (art. 4(1)).
- A heavier penalty applies where the accessed data is government data, or where the access results in cancelling, deleting, altering, publishing, republishing, or otherwise damaging electronic data, or in impersonating the site's owner or manager (art. 4(2)-(4)).
- Do not obstruct or disrupt access to a service, device, programme, or data source on the network (art. 5).
- Do not introduce anything that suspends or disrupts a system's operation, or damages, deletes, or modifies a programme, on the network (art. 6).
- Do not receive, record, intercept, or wiretap data sent through the network without authorisation (art. 7).
- Reading a public, unauthenticated page without exceeding any scope of access a site has authorised has not itself been held to violate this decree; no Palestinian court decision construing 'exceeds the authorised access' for a public page was found.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Article 4(1)'s base unauthorised-access offence carries confinement plus a fine of 200 to 1,000 Jordanian dinars; article 4(4)'s most aggravated tier, access resulting in data alteration or republication committed against government data, carries imprisonment of up to five years plus a fine of 3,000 to 5,000 dinars. Article 6's disruption offence separately carries imprisonment of up to five years plus a fine of 3,000 to 5,000 dinars. Article 51 doubles any of these penalties on repetition of the offence.
Penalty structure
5,000 Jordanian dinars is the ceiling among articles 4 and 6's most aggravated tiers; the base unauthorised-access offence under art. 4(1) caps at 1,000 dinars, with intermediate tiers at 2,000 and 3,000 dinars for other circumstances art. 4 and art. 6 enumerate.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 6 September 2026
- Currency
- JOD
- Fixed cap
- 5,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Regular Palestinian courts and the Public Prosecution hear cybercrime cases, with a specialised unit within the police agency and security forces, under the Public Prosecution's judicial supervision, handling investigation.
What it reaches
Obligation class
Access restriction, Prohibition
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 4 punishes deliberately and illegally accessing a website, system, network, or means of information technology, exceeding authorised access, or remaining present after learning the access is unauthorised, with an aggravated tier where the target is government data and a further aggravated tier where the access results in cancelling, deleting, altering, publishing, republishing, or otherwise damaging data, or impersonating the site's owner or manager.
Article 5 punishes obstructing or disrupting access to a service, device, program, or data source; article 6 punishes introducing anything that suspends, disrupts, damages, deletes, or modifies a program; article 7 punishes receiving, recording, intercepting, or wiretapping data sent over the network without authorisation; article 8 punishes decoding encrypted data or misusing another person's encryption key or electronic-signature device; article 9 punishes illegally benefiting from communication services.
The decree, promulgated on 29 April 2018, repealed its predecessor, Law by Decree No. 16 of 2017 on Cybercrime, in its entirety.
When LexLint raises it
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