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251: Making, selling, or distributing or possessing software for committing crime
or “It's against the law to create, sell, or have computer programs that help people break into computers or do illegal things.”
You could also call this:

“It's against the law to use a computer system when you're not allowed to.”

You could go to jail for up to 2 years if you access a computer system without permission. This applies if you know you’re not allowed to access it, or if you’re not sure but do it anyway. It doesn’t matter if you access the system directly or indirectly.

If someone gives you permission to use a computer system for one reason, but you use it for something else, that’s not against this law. The law is only about accessing systems you’re not allowed to use at all.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

Next up: 253: Qualified exemption to access without authorisation offence for New Zealand Security Intelligence Service

or “The law used to allow spies to access computers without permission in some cases, but this rule no longer exists.”
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Part 10 Crimes against rights of property
Crimes involving computers

252Accessing computer system without authorisation

  1. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years who intentionally accesses, directly or indirectly, any computer system without authorisation, knowing that he or she is not authorised to access that computer system, or being reckless as to whether or not he or she is authorised to access that computer system.

  2. To avoid doubt, subsection (1) does not apply if a person who is authorised to access a computer system accesses that computer system for a purpose other than the one for which that person was given access.

  3. Repealed
Notes
  • Section 252: replaced, on , by section 15 of the Crimes Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 39).
  • Section 252(3): repealed, on , by section 5 of the Crimes Amendment Act 2011 (2011 No 29).