
On the Destruction of Databases from a Legal Perspective
The crime defined in Article 268a of the Penal Code is referred to as the crime of destroying databases. It concerns the protection of the security of information, which includes its confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Article 268a § 1. Whoever, without authorization, destroys, damages, deletes, modifies, or obstructs access to computer data, or significantly disrupts or prevents the automatic processing, collection, or transmission of such data, shall be subject to a penalty of imprisonment for up to 3 years.
§ 2. Whoever, committing the act specified in § 1, causes significant financial damage, shall be subject to a penalty of imprisonment from 3 months to 5 years.
§ 3. Prosecution for the crime specified in § 1 or 2 shall be initiated at the request of the injured party.
Article 268 of the Penal Code protects the recording of information, while Article 268a refers to computer data. According to the definition in the Convention on Cybercrime, „computer data is any representation of facts, information, or concepts in a form suitable for processing in a computer system, including the relevant program causing the execution of functions by the computer system.”
Only computer data stored in electronic form is protected.
Who is the perpetrator of the crime of destroying databases, and how do they behave?
The destruction of databases occurs through action and can be committed by anyone, whereas by omission, only by a person responsible for the security of the database.
The crime involves destroying, damaging, deleting, modifying, or obstructing access to computer data, disturbing or preventing automatic processing, collection, or transmission of computer data, as a result of the perpetrator’s action, regardless of the act or omission itself.
No crime is committed if the data was supplemented in a way that did not affect its meaning, e.g., adding insignificant content to the source code. Merely gaining access to a system without damaging the data cannot lead to the assignment of this crime. In such cases, the crime under Article 267 § 2 of the Penal Code may be applied.
When determining the attribution of the act, it should be considered whether the perpetrator’s actions had any effect on the processes occurring in computer systems, i.e., whether the degree of social harm of the act is greater than negligible.
What penalty is imposed for the destruction of databases?
For the destruction of databases under § 1, the penalty is imprisonment from 1 month to 3 years. For § 2, the penalty is from 3 months to 5 years in prison.
This crime is prosecuted at the request of the injured party.
When does the crime under Article 268a occur, and when under Article 268 of the Penal Code?
In many cases, it will be necessary to decide whether to apply Article 268a or Article 268. If the perpetrator’s behavior concerns computer data that has the characteristics of information, Article 268 of the Penal Code should be applied, while for computer data, Article 268a of the Penal Code will be appropriate (lex specialis).
When can significant financial damage occur as specified in § 2 of Article 268a of the Penal Code?
The crime described in Article 268a § 2 of the Penal Code is characterized by the consequence of causing significant financial damage. The value of such damage exceeds PLN 200,000 (Article 115 § 5 of the Penal Code).
Examples of case law regarding the crime of destroying databases:
„On September 25, 2019, at an undisclosed location in the L. region, using the email address (…) and the password assigned during employment at the Centrum (…) company, based in W. at (…) St., owned by G. P., and no longer employed there, accessed, without authorization, the internet profile in the (…) service named „. (…).PL” owned by the aforementioned company, and subsequently deleted the profile along with the computer data contained therein, thereby acting to the detriment of G. P. and Centrum (…) based in W. at (…) St., owned by G. (…), pursuant to Article 268a § 1 of the Penal Code” (Judgment of the District Court in Legionowo, October 6, 2020, case No. II K 1222/19).
„From September 2013 to February 3, 2015, conducting business under the name (…) providing the implementation of the accounting and payroll system C. (…) for the company Przedsiębiorstwo Handlowo Produkcyjno-Usługowe (…), despite the termination of cooperation and a request to return the passwords, refused to provide access data to the administrator function of the C. (…) system, limiting the user’s rights to the legally purchased program, which significantly disrupted automatic data processing, preventing the company Przedsiębiorstwo Handlowo-Produkcyjno-Usługowe (…) from fully using the program, thus acting to the detriment of the company and causing a loss of no less than PLN 50,000, pursuant to Article 268a § 1 of the Penal Code in connection with Article 12 of the Penal Code” (Judgment of the District Court in Kalisz, August 31, 2020, case No. II K 357/18).
What does the Supreme Court say about the destruction of databases?
In a ruling dated September 30, 2015 (II K 115/15), the Supreme Court stated:
„Article 268a of the Penal Code penalizes two types of prohibited behavior of the perpetrator. The first is the destruction, damage, deletion, modification, and obstruction of access to computer data. The second type of behavior harms the process of proper automatic processing, collection, and transmission of computer data to a significant degree. This behavior may involve disrupting or preventing the operation of the process. The concept of disrupting automatic processing, transmission, or collection of computer data encompasses any actions that affect these processes, resulting in their improper course, delay, as well as distortion or modification of the processed, transmitted, or collected data. Prevention, on the other hand, means stopping these processes or making it impossible to initiate them.
The computer data referred to in Article 268a of the Penal Code is a record of a specific piece of information stored on a computer disk or another computer data storage medium.”
Legal status as of: January 22, 2022.











