Law / United States / Georgia
Georgia Computer Systems Protection Act, computer theft, trespass, invasion of privacy, forgery, password disclosure
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.
Commencement not set.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not use a Georgia-connected computer or computer network in a manner that exceeds the right or permission its owner granted; ordinary access to a page that grants and denies no specific permission at all does not, on the statute's own text, become use 'without authority.'
- Do not take, delete, alter, or interfere with computer data, programs, or operation without authority; doing so with the required intent is computer theft or computer trespass regardless of whether the access was automated.
- Do not use a computer without authority to examine another person's employment, medical, salary, credit, or other financial or personal data; this reaches automated collection of such data just as it reaches direct access.
- Expect a private civil action for damages in addition to criminal prosecution if your access violates this Act; the civil claim under subsection (g) carries a four-year discovery-based limitations period.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, and computer forgery are each punishable by a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment of up to 15 years, or both. Computer password disclosure carries a separate, lower penalty of a fine up to $5,000 or up to one year of incarceration, or both.
Penalty structure
The $50,000 maximum fine applies to computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, and computer forgery. Computer password disclosure carries a separate, lower fixed cap of $5,000, tied to a one-year imprisonment maximum rather than 15 years.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 6 September 2026
- Currency
- USD
- Fixed cap
- 50,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Criminal prosecution proceeds through the ordinary state criminal process (district attorneys and solicitors-general); subsection (g)'s civil action is privately enforced and runs independently of any prosecution.
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.
Section 16-9-93 makes it a crime, whenever committed without authority, to take or appropriate another's property using a computer (computer theft), to delete, obstruct, or damage computer data, programs, or operation (computer trespass), to examine another person's employment, medical, salary, credit, or other financial or personal data (computer invasion of privacy), to create, alter, or delete data in a way that would be forgery if done on paper (computer forgery), or to disclose a password or access code resulting in damages over $500 (computer password disclosure).
'Without authority' is defined at Section 16-9-92(18) to include use that exceeds any right or permission the computer's owner granted, a test closer to the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act's exceeds-authorized-access standard than to Virginia's added malicious-intent or deceptive-means requirement. Subsection (g) grants any person injured by a violation a civil action for damages and costs, not limited to the criminal remedy, with a four-year discovery-based limitations period.
Subsection (f) is a general savings clause preserving the applicability of any other law that presently applies or may apply to the same conduct; it does not name contract law specifically.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_web
Read the law
Georgia Code Title 16, Crimes and Offenses, FindLaw's copy of the official text (codes.findlaw.com), current as of March 28, 2024
the Official Code of Georgia Annotated is a subscription LexisNexis product with no free public copy, and the General Assembly's own code search is a client-rendered application serving no extractable text