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Met arrests man in newspaper computer hacking investigation


The Metropolitan Police (MPS) has arrested a man on suspicion of committing offences under the Computer Misuse Act as part of an ongoing investigation into computer hacking, it has said.

The Metropolitan Police (MPS) have arrested a man on suspicion of committing offences under the Computer Misuse Act as part of an ongoing investigation into computer hacking, it has said. 

The 52 year old man was arrested in Milton Keynes on Thursday and taken to Thames Valley police station. The man was arrested as part of Operation Tuleta. That investigation was launched by the police in the summer to investigate "a number of allegations regarding breach of privacy ... including computer hacking" that were outside of the remit of the MPS' separate investigation into phone hacking. 

The phone hacking investigation, called Operation Weeting, was set up in January after the MPS reported that it had "received significant new information from News International relating to allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World in 2005/06". 

Under the Computer Misuse Act it is an offence for a person to knowingly cause "a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer, or to enable any such access to be secured" without authorisation. 

Under the Act a person is also guilty of an offence if the unlawful computer access is used to commit, or facilitate, some other offences regardless of whether that subsequent offence is to take place in the future or is indeed possible to commit. A person is also guilty of an offence if they commit any unauthorised act with intent to impair the operation of any computer, prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer, impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data, or enabling those acts to be done. 

Making, adapting, supplying or offering to supply any electronic program or data intending it, or knowingly it is likely, to be used or to assist in the commission of unlawful computer access or impairment is also an offence. Supplying electronic programs or data "with a view to its being supplied for use to commit, or to assist in the commission" of unlawful computer access or impairment is also an offence under the Act. 

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