“News of the World” Phone Hacks A Violation of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?

Professor Orin Kerr is certainly one of the leading authorities on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In a recent blog post he provides an excellent analysis of how the hacking scandal involving the English newspaper “News of the World” may have violated the United State’s Computer Fraud and Abuse Act law even though it …

3 Recent Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Cases Worth Noting

Three recent Computer Fraud and Abuse Act cases decided over the last couple of months are worth looking at because they show the following points, respectively: (1) the CFAA in its current form does not give consumers an adequate remedy for privacy related data breach issues; (2) the CFAA’s focus on “access” is more akin …

An Adequate Disclaimer for Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?

The DISCLAIMER to an article on InvestorsInsight.com really got my attention when I saw it because it specifically puts users on notice of the need to review the privacy policies on websites linked to that page and that any attempts to monkey around with the website are prohibited by and will be prosecuted under the …

Privacy and Cyber Legislation Pending in the 112th Congress

Computer hacking, data breach, data privacy, and information security have dominated the news lately and created a sense of urgency in Congress to “do something” to fix the problems. Over the last few days I have searched the web for a source to keep me updated on all of the cyber-legislation that is currently pending …

Update: Recent Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Cases

By necessity, for this update I am trying to change my format for blogging updates for recent cases involving the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) as this lawyer has been busy lately. Instead of providing a relatively thorough analysis of each individual case, I must cover several in one update and just briefly touch …

LinkedIn: think before you sync!

Right now LinkedIn is the darling of the business world and rightfully so. It is the professional’s social network that, I believe, virtually everyone should be taking advantage of — lawyers and clients alike — though not with reckless abandon. One of the nifty features about it is that when you sign up it gives …

Ex Wife Pretending to Be 17 Yr Old on Facebook Gets Hubby Arrested by FBI

In a story available HERE, the Smoking Gun reports that an Angela Voelkert, the ex wife of David Voelkert, got her former husband busted by the FBI by setting up a fake Facebook account and pretending to be the 17 year old “comely teenage girl” pictured at the right (pic taken directly from Smoking Gun):  …

Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2011

On June 7, 2011 Senator Leahy introduced bill S. 1151 in the Senate called the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2011, which is linked HERE. The stated purpose of the bill is as follows: To prevent and mitigate identity theft, to ensure privacy, to provide notice of security breaches, and to enhance criminal …

Citrin Lives! Dist. Ct. applies the agency theory of access in a post-Nosal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act case

The Intended Use Theory of access under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) has been all the rage among since the Ninth Circuit handed down its opinion in United States v. Nosal but that doesn’t mean the Agency Theory has gone by the wayside. Just last week a district court used the Agency Theory …

Ninth Circuit: Speculative “Loss” Insufficient for Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

A plaintiff’s claim that he would need to retain a forensic computer expert to examine a third party’s computer to detect and delete the data taken from his thumb drive was considered to be too speculative to qualify as a “loss” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”). This was the Ninth Circuit Court …