Court in ticket resale case says ‘yes,’ if it results in unauthorized access, an essential element of the crime. The U.S. Department of Justice has brought a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) prosecution in New Jersey against the owners and operators of Wiseguy Tickets Inc., an online ticket seller for concerts and sports events…. Read More
I recently reported that the federal court in Tennessee refused to overturn the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act conviction of David Kernel, the 22 year-old college student who had hacked into the Yahoo! email account of then Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Kernel had been convicted after a jury trial last April. Today the Judge… 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
The college student David C. Kernell who was convicted by a Chattanooga, Tennessee jury of various federal crimes including a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) for accessing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account will be sentenced on October 29, 2010. What Kernell did was to decipher the password for Alaska… Read More
A federal district court in Maryland held that an employee who allegedly stole proprietary data from his prior employer did not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) because he was authorized to access the data and use the data on the job before he terminated his employment with his prior employer. Océ North… Read More
A critical element in proving either a civil or criminal violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”), the federal computer crime statute, is that the defendant act with criminal intent as opposed to mistake or negligence. In discussing the breadth of computers covered by the CFAA the Eight Circuit emphasized the importance of… Read More
Two federal district courts, one in Maryland and the other in Texas, dismissed what each court considered to be valid civil claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”). Title 18 U.S.C. § 1030. The CFAA is the federal computer crime statute that provides a civil cause of action to “any person who suffers damage… Read More
In American Family Mutual Insurance Co. v. Hollander, 2010 WL 2851639 *1 (N.D. Iowa, July 20, 2010) the court denied the defendant employee’s motion for summary judgment on the Computer Fraud and Abuse (“CFAA”) claim. The plaintiff claimed Hollander, “anticipating terminating his relationship with plaintiff, accessed and used plaintiff’s computer database to aid himself in… Read More
Last week a federal district court in California granted Cisco Systems, Inc. summary judgment on its Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) claim against an ex-employee who “on multiple occasions and without authorization, . . . used a Cisco employee’s password to gain access to Cisco’s computer systems and download Cisco’s proprietary and copyrighted software.”… Read More
The National Law Journal July 5, 2010 An ALM publication Daily updates at NLJ.COM Under Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, plaintiff must properly specify a $5,000 loss or case will be tossed. BY NICK AKERMAN The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is the omnibus federal computer crime statute outlawing theft and destruction of data,… Read More