Cybersecurity law & regulation in Honduras (2026)
Cybersecurity in Honduras: sectoral rules.
Honduras lacks a comprehensive cross-sectoral cybersecurity law. Its primary binding cybersecurity rules are sector-specific: CNBS Circular 025/2022 imposes IT-security governance, risk management, and incident-notification duties on supervised financial institutions, while the 2019 Penal Code update criminalises a range of cyber offences. A standalone 'Ley de Ciberseguridad' has been debated in Congress but remained unenacted as of mid-2026, with civil society and the UN Human Rights Office raising free-expression concerns.
Legal framework
CNBS Circular No. 025/2022 (Normas para la Gestión de Tecnologías de Información, Ciberseguridad y Continuidad del Negocio) for the financial sector; Penal Code cybercrime provisions (Decree 130-2017, updated 2019); CERT-HN as national incident-response body
Key points: cybersecurity in Honduras
Financial-sector cybersecurity rule
CNBS Circular No. 025/2022 (issued December 2022) binds all CNBS-supervised financial institutions to mandatory IT governance, cybersecurity risk management, outsourcing controls, business-continuity planning, and IT audit requirements. Institutions must notify CNBS at least 30 days before engaging a significant third-party IT provider.
Cybercrime in the Penal Code
Decree 130-2017 introduced Title XXII into the Penal Code, criminalising illegal access, illegal interception, system/data interference, misuse of devices, computer fraud, and online child-exploitation offences. The updated Penal Code entered force in 2019 and remains the primary criminal-law instrument for cyber offences.
Draft cybersecurity bill, not yet enacted
Multiple draft bills have circulated in the National Congress, including a proposal by Deputy José Sabillón for a 'Ley Básica del Sistema Nacional de Ciberseguridad' targeting extortion, hacking, and digital crimes. An earlier draft also addressed hate-speech online. As of mid-2026, no standalone cybersecurity law has been approved; the UN Human Rights Office (OACNUDH) flagged that a prior draft lacked adequate free-expression safeguards.
CERT-HN, national incident response
The Honduras Cyber Security Center (CERT-HN) is the national body responsible for preventing and mitigating cybersecurity threats, conducting vulnerability analysis, and providing continuous monitoring of public internet infrastructure. It serves both government entities and the broader critical-infrastructure ecosystem.
Digital Government Plan 2023-2026
The Honduran government's Plan Nacional de Gobierno Digital 2023-2026, administered by DIGER, designates cybersecurity as one of ten strategic programs. It commits to adopting a national cloud strategy, modernising data centres, and enacting new cybersecurity and data-protection legislation, acknowledging that these laws remain pending.
No general breach-notification obligation
Outside the CNBS-regulated financial sector, Honduras has no enacted law mandating breach notification to authorities or data subjects. The Council of Europe Octopus review notes Honduras also lacks a formal national cybercrime strategy and has not ratified the Budapest Convention.
Timeline of decisions
- GuidanceCONATEL Announces Cybersecurity Bill for Congress by End-2026, Citing AI Risks
Telecommunications regulator CONATEL announced it is drafting a Cybersecurity Law in coordination with the ITU, to be submitted to the National Congress by December 2026. CONATEL's president explicitly cited artificial intelligence as a key threat driving the bill — marking the first time a Honduran regulatory body has formally acknowledged AI as a distinct regulatory risk.
Proceso Digital
- Law'Base Law of the National Cybersecurity System' Bill Introduced
Liberal Party Deputy José Sabillón filed a draft 'Ley Base del Sistema Nacional de Ciberseguridad' to create a comprehensive framework for combating extortion, hacking, criminal use of devices, and unregulated import of specialized equipment, arguing that heavier prison sentences alone are insufficient without a preventive, technical legal foundation.
El Heraldo Honduras
- Guidance · officialNational Digital Government Plan 2023-2026 Launched
The Castro administration's Dirección de Gestión por Resultados (DIGER) adopted a ten-programme digital-transformation plan backed by a $49 million IDB investment; one programme is explicitly dedicated to cybersecurity, monitoring, and data protection, committing to enact new cybersecurity and data-protection laws by 2026.
DIGER – Presidencia de la República de Honduras
- DecisionIncoming Castro Government Allows Contested Cybersecurity Bill to Stall
With President Xiomara Castro's inauguration in January 2022, the 'Ley de Estrategia de Ciberseguridad Nacional', which had cleared two of three required congressional debates, was effectively shelved, leaving Honduras without a standalone cybersecurity statute and without an operational national strategy.
Criterio.hn
- LawNational Congress Advances 'Cybersecurity Strategy' Bill Through Second Debate
The 'Ley de Estrategia de Ciberseguridad Nacional de Prevención de Campañas de Odio y Discriminación en Redes Sociales' passed its second of three required debates, proposing a 19-institution interinstitutional cybersecurity committee; critics said the hate-speech provisions went far beyond the bill's original security purpose.
La Prensa Honduras
- Guidance · officialOACNUDH and Civil Society Issue Joint Declaration Against Cybersecurity Bill
The UN Human Rights Office in Honduras (OACNUDH), Artículo 19, and other press-freedom and human-rights groups published a joint declaration condemning the cybersecurity bill, warning that its broad online-speech provisions amounted to prior censorship and imposed disproportionate obligations on website operators, chilling freedom of expression.
OACNUDH Honduras (UN Human Rights)
- LawNew Penal Code (Decree 130-2017) Enters into Force, Cybercrime Chapter Activated
Honduras's revised Penal Code took full effect, activating Title XXII ('Security of Networks and Computer Systems') as the country's operative cybercrime framework; it criminalises unauthorised system access, data interference, computer fraud, phishing, identity theft, online child sexual abuse material, grooming and sexting, with sentences of six months to eight years.
La Tribuna Honduras
- Law · officialDecree 130-2017 Published in Official Gazette
The new Penal Code, incorporating roughly 50 new categories of criminal offences including a comprehensive cybercrime title, was officially gazetted by the Tribunal Superior de Cuentas, starting the transition clock to its June 2020 effective date.
Tribunal Superior de Cuentas – Honduras
- Decision · officialCERT-HN Becomes Operational
Honduras's national Computer Emergency Response Center (CERT-HN), housed within CONATEL and built with Israeli technical experts, became operational, providing threat monitoring, vulnerability analysis, cyber-incident alerts, and cooperation with international peer CERTs, one of the first formal cybersecurity institutions in Central America.
CERT-HN (Honduras Cyber Security Center)
- DecisionHonduras-Israel $209M Defense and Cybersecurity Cooperation Agreement
Honduras and Israel signed a landmark $209 million bilateral defense cooperation agreement, the largest in Honduras's history, with approximately $50 million earmarked for cybersecurity: a national risk assessment, an advanced cyber-monitoring and defence centre, information-sharing infrastructure, training programmes, and the construction of CERT-HN, facilitated by Israel's SIBAT defence cooperation directorate.
Israel Defense
Sources
- cnbs.gob.hn/destacado/circular-cnbs-no-025-2022/
- circulares.cnbs.gob.hn/Archivo/Viewer/2520/025-2022%20NORMAS%20GESTION%20TECNOLOGIAS%20INFOR
- coe.int/en/web/octopus/-/honduras
- cyberpolicyportal.org/states/honduras
- ncsi.ega.ee/country/hn/
- cert-hn.hn/
- oacnudh.hn/oacnudh-ley-de-ciberseguridad-no-garantiza-la-libre-la-expresion/
- elheraldo.hn/portada/impulsan-ley-ciberseguridad-para-frenar-extorsion-delitos-dig
- diger.gob.hn/sites/default/files/2024-02/Plan%20de%20Gobierno%20Digital%20Honduras
- trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/country-assets/euca_05_Cybersecurity%20sector%20
- dig.watch/resource/honduras-digital-government-plan-2023-2026
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Next topicOrientation, not legal advice: verify against the primary sources linked above. Last verified 24 May 2026. Methodology & how to cite · State of Technology Regulation 2026