Macau introduces cybersecurity committee

The Macau government has introduced an administrative regulation to set up a cybersecurity committee responsible for responding to emergency situations.

Named Cybersecurity Incident Alert and Response Centre (CARIC), it is a technical institution “within the framework of cybersecurity alert and response”, the Macau Government said in a statement.

Chaired by the Chief Executive, this body will be “responsible for defining the general orientation, objectives and strategies in the field of cybersecurity. It is responsible for monitoring and assessing the development and operation of cybersecurity activities carried out by critical infrastructure operators”.

In a little over a year and a half, the city has advanced legislation to reinforce video surveillance and introduced the cybersecurity law – intended to protect operators of critical infrastructures and to guarantee public safety and public order – the law of use and protection of the flag, national emblems and Chinese anthem -which provides for up to three years imprisonment for those who knowingly and intentionally outrage the country’s symbols and representations – and the Civil Protection Law, in which the crime of false social alarm can also result in three years in jail.

This administrative regulation announced today comes into force on December 22, the same day as another draft law proposing punishing with up to three years imprisonment or a fine, the use of computer devices to simulate mobile telecommunications broadcasters.

This crime will be punished with a “one to five-year imprisonment” if “the purpose is for-profit or if the simulated station is used to facilitate the commission of another crime, or to transmit any advertising prohibited by law or to disseminate, disclose pornographic information or illegal gambling activities,” the statement said.

According to the authorities, the change is due to the “need to keep pace with the times” and “adjust the current” Cybersecurity Law.

The law also stipulates that criminal investigation services may, by judicial authorization, use a copy of computer data hosted on servers outside Macau as evidence in criminal proceedings, “provided that such data is lawfully accessible or obtainable from the computer system located” in the Macau SAR.