California Legislature declares that “protection of the integrity of all types and forms of lawfully created computers, computer systems, and computer data is vital to the protection of the privacy of individuals as well as to the well-being of financial institutions, business concerns, governmental agencies, and others within this state [of California] that lawfully utilize those computers, computer systems, and data.” In short, computer crimes center-around illegal access to electronic data that does not belong to the person attempting to access and/or use that data. However, because computer crimes do not necessarily involve physical evidence in some cases, it can be difficult to prove that an individual is truly guilty of such an infraction, which is why it is absolutely essential that the services of an experienced Newport Beach defense attorney should be retained as soon as an individual is accused of committing such a crime.
California Penal Code 502(c) states that individuals are guilty of a public offense if they knowingly access and alter, damage, or destroy computer data, a computer system, or a computer network in order to “devise or execute any scheme…to defraud, deceive, or extort, or wrongfully control or obtain money, property, or date.” Computer crimes are often labeled as white collar crimes, particularly because they are not characterized by violent action against another person, but deal with data theft or embezzlement of some kind.
In many cases, computer crimes are motivated by financial incentive of some kind. California Penal Code Section 502, subsection 6, paragraph (a) declares that “any person who knowingly, willfully, and with the intent to defraud, possesses a scanning device, or who knowingly, willfully, and with intent to defraud, uses a scanning device to access, read, obtain, memorize or store, temporarily or permanently, information encoded on the magnetic strip or stripe of a payment card without the permission of the authorized user of the payment card is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a term in a county jail not to exceed one year, or a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both the imprisonment and fine.” Regardless of what the circumstances of the computer crime may be, a strong defense needs to be mounted on your behalf, to ensure that your rights are not infringed upon in a court of law.
Maltaise Cini, Attorney At Law, represents individuals accused of computer crimes in Southern California. Attorney Cini’s experience as a Newport Beach computer crime defense attorney has afforded her the know-how to effectively defend her accused clients. If you or a loved one has been accused of committing a computer crime in Newport Beach, please contact Maltaise Cini today at (949) 660-1389 for more information that could help with your computer crime defense.