Cybercrime Act 2021, computer-access and interference offences
Cybercrime Act No. 22 of 2021 (Vanuatu)
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 22 September 2021.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not access the whole or part of a computer system by infringing a security measure, whether or not the underlying data is later used for crawling or training, unless entitled to access it or the owner has consented.
- Do not intercept a non-public transmission of computer data to, from or within a computer system, or the electromagnetic emission of such a system, without lawful excuse.
- Do not do any act that causes unauthorised interference to a computer system, program or data; the fine and prison term rise sharply where the interference causes a financial loss over VT1,000,000, threatens national security or public health or safety, or causes physical injury or death.
- Do not produce, sell, import, export, distribute or make available software, a device, a password or an access code for the purpose of unauthorised interception or interference with a computer system, except for authorised training, testing or protection of a computer system.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Every offence in Part 2 (illegal access, illegal interception, unauthorised interference, misuse of devices) is punishable on conviction by a fine and, for an individual, imprisonment; the fine and prison term scale with the offence, peaking at a fine of up to VT50,000,000 or up to 50 years' imprisonment for an individual (VT100,000,000 for a body corporate) where unauthorised interference causes serious harm under section 5(3).
Penalty structure
Section 3 (illegal access) and section 4 (illegal interception) each cap an individual's fine at VT2,000,000 (up to 5 years' imprisonment) and a body corporate's at VT4,000,000. Section 5 (unauthorised interference) caps an individual's fine at VT7,000,000 (up to 40 years' imprisonment) and a body corporate's at VT100,000,000 for ordinary unauthorised interference, rising to VT50,000,000 (up to 50 years) for an individual where section 5(3)'s serious-harm threshold is met, with the body-corporate cap unchanged at VT100,000,000; reckless interference under section 5(4) caps an individual's fine at VT10,000,000 (up to 40 years) with the same VT100,000,000 body-corporate cap. Section 6 (misuse of devices) caps an individual's fine at VT1,000,000 (up to 3 years) and a body corporate's at VT3,000,000. The Act states these amounts in Vanuatu vatu (VT).
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 6 September 2026
- Currency
- VUV
- Fixed cap
- 100,000,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Vanuatu Police Force, through an authorised officer appointed under section 69
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.
Section 3 makes it an offence to intentionally and without lawful excuse access the whole or part of a computer system by infringing a security measure, punishable by a fine of up to VT2,000,000 or up to 5 years' imprisonment for an individual, or a fine of up to VT4,000,000 for a body corporate; a person is not liable if entitled to access the program or data or has consent to it. Section 4 similarly bars intercepting a non-public transmission of computer data without lawful excuse.
Section 5 makes unauthorised interference with a computer system, program or data an offence carrying a fine of up to VT7,000,000 or up to 40 years' imprisonment for an individual (up to VT100,000,000 for a body corporate), rising to a fine of up to VT50,000,000 or up to 50 years' imprisonment where the interference causes serious harm such as a financial loss over VT1,000,000, a threat to national security, physical injury or death, or a threat to public health or safety, and a lesser fine of up to VT10,000,000 or up to 40 years' imprisonment for reckless interference.
Section 6 makes it an offence, carrying a fine of up to VT1,000,000 or up to 3 years' imprisonment for an individual (up to VT3,000,000 for a body corporate), to produce, sell, procure, import, export, distribute or make available software, a device, or an access code for the purpose of unauthorised interception or interference, unless the act is for authorised training, testing or protection of a computer system.
Section 63, in the Act's mutual-assistance part, confirms that a police officer may access publicly available stored computer data without authorisation regardless of where it is geographically located, consistent with section 3's security-measure-based test for what counts as unauthorised access.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_web
Read the law
Text of the Cybercrime Act No. 22 of 2021, PacLII, archived copy