Saudi courts have cleared some 78 cases of cybercrime over the past six months, a local daily reported.
According to these sources, Dammam’s court received more than 46 percent of the total number of cases Kingdom-wide, with 36 cases, followed by Riyadh with 10 cases (12.8 percent).
Khamis Mushayt, meanwhile, registered eight cases (10.3 percent), Arar five cases (6.4 percent), Madinah four cases (5.1 percent), Qassim and Qatif three cases each and Hail, Khobar and Kharj just two cases each.
Courts in Makkah, Taif and Unaizah registered the least number of cybercrime, with only one case each, equivalent to little over one percent of all cases, the sources said.
According to cybercrime regulations brought into effect seven years ago, cybercrime perpetrators can be imprisoned for anywhere between one and 10 years and incur a fine of between SR500,000 and SR5 million, the paper said.
The anti-cybercrime law in the Kingdom involves various offenses.
These include spying, interception of data transmitted through an information network without authorization, unlawful access to computers with the intention of threatening or engaging in blackmail, unlawful access to a website or hacking with the intent of changing design, destroying or modifying websites, invasion of privacy through the misuse of camera-equipped mobile phones and defamation and infliction of damage on others through the misuse of information.
Dammam leads in cybercrime
