Monthly Archives: January 2011
Facebook’s Lawsuit Protects Its Users Against a Massive Spamming Scheme
On January 26, 2011, the federal district court in the Northern District of California granted Facebook a default judgment against Philip Porembski and PP Web Services LLC for obtaining “login credentials for at least 116,000 Facebook accounts without authorization” and for sending “more than 7.2 million spam messages to Facebook users.” Facebook, Inc. v. Fisher, 2011 WL 250395 *1 (N.D.Cal. Jan. 26, 2011) This case is a textbook example of how a company can use self help and available federal law to protect itself and its customers. Not only did Facebook bring a halt to the spam that was plaguing … [ Continue reading ]
The 6th Circuit affirms the Computer Fraud and Abuse conviction of an IT Employee
Last week the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the criminal conviction for the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) of an employee who stole confidential data from his employer’s computers. U.S. v. Batti, 2011 WL 111745 (6th Cir. Jan. 14, 2011). The issues on appeal were limited to whether the government had offered sufficient proof that the value of the data stolen exceeded $5,000 to qualify as a 5 year felony, 18 U.S.C. § 1030 (a)(2)(C)(c)(B)(iii), and whether the district court had abused its discretion in ordering restitution in the amount of $47,565. These limited issues precluded the Sixth … [ Continue reading ]
