On October 27, 2011, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that U.S. v. Nosal be reheard en banc by all of the Appeals Court judges and that the “three-judge panel opinion [in U.S. v. Nosal, 642 F.3d 781 (9th Cir. 2011)] shall not be cited as precedent by or to any court of the… Read More
The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the criminal conviction of Sandra Teague for accessing President Obama’s data in the National Student Loan Data System during her employment at a government contractor for the Department of Education. U.S. v, Teague, 646 F.3d 1119 (8th Cir. 2011). She was indicted and convicted by a jury for… Read More
In California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, Arizona, Nevada and Idaho – states covered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — the answer as of yesterday is an emphatic “YES.” In U.S. v. Nosal, 2011 WL 1585600 (9th Cir. April 28, 2011) the court clarified its decision in LVRC Holdings LLC v. Brekka, 581 F.3d… Read More
This week the 11th Circuit upheld the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) conviction and one -year prison sentence of a former Social Security Administration (“SSA”) employee who accessed the agency’s computer for non-business reasons. U.S. v. Rodriguez, 2010 WL 5253231 (11th Cir. Dec. 27, 2010). This case is significant for two reasons. First, the… Read More
While the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) permits seven causes of action to be brought by individuals or companies who have been victims of violations of the statute, practitioners lose sight of the fact that the CFAA is at its core a criminal statute. Nyack Hospital v. Moran, 2010 WL 4118355 (S.D.N.Y. June… Read More
In International Airport Centers, LLC v. Citrin, 440 F.3d 418, 420 (7th Cir. 2006) the court held that an employee was liable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse and the employee’s “authorization to access the [company] laptop terminated, when, . . . [the employee] resolved to destroy files that incriminated himself and other files that… Read More
Early in 2007, three separate circuit courts-the 5th U.S. Circuit court of Appeals in U.S. v. Phillips, 477 F.3d 215 (5th Cir. 2007); the 8th Circuit in U.S. v. Trotter, 478 F.3d 918 (8th Cir. 2007); and the 10th Circuit in U.S. v. Willis, 476 F.3d 1121 (10th Cir. 2007)-affirmed criminal convictions for violations of… Read More