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<law><site_title>Virginia Decoded</site_title><site_url>https://vacode.org</site_url><law_id>61998</law_id><section_number>18.2-152.15</section_number><catch_line>Encryption used in criminal activity</catch_line><edition url="https://vacode.org/2025/" slug="2025" current="TRUE" last_updated="">2025</edition><structure><unit label="title" level="1" order_by="1" identifier="18.2">Crimes and Offenses Generally</unit><unit label="chapter" level="2" order_by="1" identifier="5">Crimes Against Property</unit><unit label="article" level="3" order_by="1" identifier="7.1">Computer Crimes</unit></structure><text>
						<section><p>Any <span class="dictionary">person</span> who willfully uses <span class="dictionary">encryption</span> to further any criminal activity shall be guilty of an <span class="dictionary">offense</span> which is separate and distinct from the predicate criminal activity and punishable as a Class 1 <span class="dictionary">misdemeanor</span>.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Encryption</span>&#x201D; means the enciphering of intelligible data into unintelligible form or the deciphering of unintelligible data into intelligible form.</p></section></text><history>1999, c. 455.</history><metadata></metadata></law>
