Swot Analysis of the United Arab Emirates Cyber Law (Essay Sample)

Cyber Laws in UAE
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SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE UAE CYBER LAW
Strengths
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) appreciates the importance of cyber law on Cybercrime and its necessity to stay updated on issues of cybercrime. UAE is the first country in the Middle East to put in place cyber laws whereby the first cyber-crime law was passed in 2006 in the month of June. For this reason, UAE is ahead of other countries in the Middle East as far as cyber security and crime are concerned.
The UAE government is looking for ways in which programs on cybercrime law can be introduced in the local universities to bring awareness about it to more people and to produce experts of the same within UAE. For example,Zayed University started a degree program on cyber security (Ferraro &Briody, 2012).
Weaknesses
The law has not been able to incorporate some current issues in cybercrime such as digital piracy, harassment via emails and cloud computing. There are some legal consequences that are not clearly spelled out by the law. For example, how to deal with a minor who breaks cybercrime law has not been specified. The UAE cyber crime law covers very large and diverse areas of cyber crimes, nonetheless some parts of the law are very well punctuated but with lack of clarity and explanation.
The law has ignored some critical issues relating to cyber crime such as declaring online gambling a cyber crime as well as creating websites that promotes terrorist activities and spreading of strange messages related to terrorist activities.
Opportunities
Hosting of global conferences related to cyber-crime in UAE will boost awareness among many users of the internet and the government too (Goodman, 2015). Setting up of cybercrime courts will help in the better exercising of cybercrime law.
The UAE has a strong economic base compared to other countries in the Middle East. This is in terms of resources available and the wealth endowed in it. This fact makes it able to grab any available opportunities in the region that are after the improvement of the cyber laws in the country.
Threats
More than half of population in UAE is exposed to cyber-crime. Some gaps exist in the law, which makes UAE a victim of many cyber-crimes globally. The era we are living in is that of technology and information revolution, this gives hackers and other cyber criminals an opportunity to get new ways of carrying out their illegal activities as well as sharing hackling information and strategies. This puts the people of UAE at the risk of becoming cyber crime victims.
Not many people in the UAE are exposed to the internet, hence only a few people recognize the cyber crime laws put in place and appreciate their need in the curbing some illegal activities.
Comparison between USA and UAE cyber law
Cyber laws in the UAE majorly based on Islamic religious regulations. In the USA the laws aren’t specifically based on a specific religion but generally on good conduct of individuals. This makes it easier for the law to be exercised in UAE as the citizens see it as part of their religion, which they greatly uphold.
Title 18 of the United States of America Code (18 U.S.C) provides a penalty for minor pornography and online personality theft (Federal Reserve System Board of Governors Staff, Office of the Federal Register (U.S.), 2006). This is not provided in the UAE cyber-crime laws. The weakness of this in the UAE is that some cyber-crimes like those ones mentioned above are gone unpunished, hence not achieving the intended purpose of protecting citizens against cyber-crime.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and protection Act was passed into law in the USA in 1947. However, the act has gone through some amendments, which have helped the USA to take into consideration the upcoming cyber-crimes. On the other hand, in UAE passed its cyber law in June 2006. This is very recent compared to the USA. UAE has a long way to go before it reaches the standards of USA as far as dealing with cyber-crime is concerned (shinder&Cross, 2008).
Cyber law in USA has a law that deals with illegal access to computers, that is getting access to someone elseâ&e...