Tag Archives: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

DNC Sues Russia, the Trump campaign, Wikileaks

It’s probably not going to change anything, but the Democratic National Committee has sued Russia (and members of the Russian establishment), members of the Trump campaign, and Wikileaks regard the 2016 election security breaches.  The DNC’s complaint includes almost every claim imaginable in response to a hacking incident.  If nothing else, it’s a good model for lawyers to crib from. More

Rare Massachusetts Superior Court Decision Interpreting the CFAA Takes the Narrow View Without Squarely Addressing the Broad

This is a cross-post from our sister blog, Massachusetts Noncompete Law:

Judge Peter M. Lauriat of the Massachusetts Superior Court decided late last year that an employee who takes confidential documents from her employer’s electronic document system to use in a discrimination lawsuit against her employer is not liable to the employer under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), especially when the employer knew about the lawsuit but nonetheless did not restrict the employee’s access to those documents while she was working for the employer. … More

Massachusetts Federal Court Refuses to Dismiss CFAA Claim But Permits the Defendants to Ask Again Later

In the cross-post from our Noncompete Blog, another CFAA decision is discussed.

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Echoing a new theme in the federal district court in Massachusetts, last month Chief Magistrate Judge Leo T. Sorokin refused to dismiss a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) claim brought against the former CEO of a company, but did so without prejudice, meaning that the defendants could ask the Court to dismiss the claim again later in the case.… More

Should the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Only Apply to Acts That Are Hard to Do?

The United States District Court for the Northern District of California recently refused to dismiss a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) claim with an unusual twist:  the defendant allegedly circumvented an IP address block after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the plaintiff and therefore is alleged to have acted “without authorization” in violation of the CFAA.

The dispute began with Craigslist Inc.… More

U.S. District Court Narrowly Construes Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

In the following article from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (reprinted with permission), Brian Bialas comments on the latest Computer Fraud and Abuse Act case, and the resultant split in the District of Massachusett on how to interpret the CFAA: 

Ex-employees sued over computer use
Judge narrowly construes CFAA

By Eric T. Berkman

A technology company could not sue former employees for downloading proprietary information onto personal storage devices before they joined a competitor without showing that the employees had physically accessed the information through fraudulent or unlawful means,… More

The Split in the Circuit Courts Over the Proper Interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Actually Goes Three Ways

Posted on March 15th, 2013 by
on our sister blog, Massachusetts Noncompete Law.
 
            I’ve written many times More about the significant split in circuit courts’ interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which affects whether an employer can sue an employee for violating computer use restrictions, usually embodied in a confidentiality agreement or company IT policy, when an employee downloads confidential information he is permitted to access but then takes that information to a competitor. …

Commentary on the Status of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

 

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

Feb 18, 2013
U.S. Supreme Court takes pass on CFAA lawsuit; uncertainty remains
In 1st Circuit, ‘ball in employer’s court’

By Correy E. Stephenson More

The U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari in a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act case leaves employment lawyers in the 1st Circuit and beyond with continuing uncertainty.Employers frequently add a CFAA claim to suits against former employees that take confidential information from company computer systems.…

New Hampshire Federal Court Interprets the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act More Narrowly Than Massachusetts Federal Court and Dismisses Claims Based on Violations of Computer Use Restrictions

As posted earlier today by Brian P. Bialas on the Massachusetts Non-Compete blog, a recent case from the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire highlights the split between the District of New Hampshire and the District of Massachusetts over the proper interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030, in particular the phrase “exceeds authorized access.”… More

Ninth Circuit En Banc Decision Creates Circuit Split with First Circuit that Affects Employer Claims Against Employees under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

(This post also appears in www.massachusettsnoncompetelaw.com)

Below is an article that I wrote for the June edition of Massachusetts Lawyers Journal, the monthly publication of the Massachusetts Bar Association. It discusses an important case that interprets the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Moreand the split in the law that case has created with the First Circuit, which includes Massachusetts.The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has noted that employers are increasingly using the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) “to sue former employees and their new companies who seek a competitive edge through wrongful use of information from the former employer’s computer system.” But in April,…