{"id":1306,"date":"2019-08-22T18:12:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T18:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/what-to-know-employees-and-computer-fraud-in-the-workplace\/"},"modified":"2019-08-22T18:12:36","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T18:12:36","slug":"what-to-know-employees-and-computer-fraud-in-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/what-to-know-employees-and-computer-fraud-in-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Know: Employees and Computer Fraud in the Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When an employer discovers that a departing employee has misappropriated information using a computer, there may be a remedy under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). In many cases, employees who misappropriate information using a computer expose themselves to potential civil and criminal liability under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/southern-district-of-georgia-judge-narrowly-construes-computer-fraud-and-abuse-act\/\">the CFAA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act<br \/><\/u><\/strong>The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act gives employers a civil cause of action against an employee who \u201cintentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access\u201d and obtains or misuses certain information obtained from the computer.\u00a0 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 1030.\u00a0 While the CFAA defines the phrase \u201cexceeds authorized access,\u201d it does not define \u201cwith authorization\u201d or \u201cwithout authorization.\u201d\u00a0 These terms have been interpreted differently by the various circuits, causing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/the-reach-of-the-computer-fraud-and-abuse-act-remains-unresolved-2\/\">reach<\/a> of the CFAA to vary by jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p>Some federal Circuit Courts of Appeal construe the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act narrowly, holding that an employer must show that the employee had <em>specifically<\/em> exceeded express limitations on access.\u00a0 Other circuits construe the CFAA more expansively, holding that an employee\u2019s authority to access information automatically terminates when the employee forms the intent to leave his employer and is therefore no longer a \u201cloyal\u201d agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/the-reach-of-the-computer-fraud-and-abuse-act-remains-unresolved-2\/\"><em>United States v. Rodriguez<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>628 F.3d 1258 (11<sup>th<\/sup> Cir. 2010), the 11<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit aligned with the narrower approach, albeit in a manner that still results in a fairly broad interpretation of the CFAA.\u00a0 In <em>Rodriguez<\/em>, a TeleService representative of the Social Security Administration (SSA), was prosecuted under the CFAA for accessing personal records of 17 different individuals for non-business reasons.\u00a0 The defendant challenged his conviction, arguing that because he accessed only databases that he was authorized to use, he did not violate the statute.\u00a0 The Eleventh Circuit rejected his argument, noting the SSA had a policy which stated that employees may only access personal information in the course of assisting individuals with questions concerning their social security.\u00a0 Therefore, the defendant violated the CFAA by exceeding his authority to access the government computer by obtaining personal information for a nonbusiness reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Eleventh Circuit had occasion to review its stance on the CFAA recently in <em>Maye v. United States, <\/em>2019 WL 1858211 (April 25, 2019).\u00a0 In <em>Maye<\/em>, the defendant accessed the National Crime Information Center federal database to research and obtain information about his co-defendant\u2019s lovers.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, he was only authorized to access this database for law enforcement purposes, and he had been trained accordingly.\u00a0 Because he was not authorized to access the database for this purpose, he was found to have violated the CFAA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Maye\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/habeas%20corpus\">habeas corpus<\/a><\/em> challenges following his conviction were unsuccessful.\u00a0 After he had completed his period of incarceration, Maye filed another petition challenging his conviction.\u00a0 This time he argued that the underlying indictment did not state a claim for a violation of the CFAA. \u00a0The district court rejected his argument, and he appealed to the 11<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 11<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit found that Maye\u2019s petition was foreclosed by <em>U.S.<\/em> <em>v. Rodriguez.<\/em>\u00a0 Under the \u201cprior precedent rule\u201d, because the <em>Rodriguez <\/em>court was the first panel to interpret the definition of \u201cexceeds authorized access\u201d under the CFAA, all subsequent panels of the 11<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit are bound by <em>Rodriguez <\/em>unless the first panel\u2019s holding is overruled by the 11<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit sitting <em>en banc<\/em> or by the Supreme Court.\u00a0 Applying <em>Rodriguez<\/em>, the 11<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit concluded that the indictment plainly stated a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claim and that Maye was therefore not entitled to relief from his conviction.<\/p>\n<p>While, like <em>Rodriguez<\/em>, <em>Maye<\/em> does not involve a departing employee that misappropriated information, the case is still a good reminder that, particularly within the 11<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit, when an employer discovers that a departing employee has misappropriated information using a computer, there may be a remedy under the CFAA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When an employer discovers that a departing employee has misappropriated information using a computer, there may be a remedy under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). In many cases, employees who misappropriate information using a computer expose themselves to potential civil and criminal liability under the CFAA. The Computer Fraud and Abuse ActThe Computer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What to Know: Employees and Computer Fraud in the Workplace - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/what-to-know-employees-and-computer-fraud-in-the-workplace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What to Know: Employees and Computer Fraud in the Workplace - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When an employer discovers that a departing employee has misappropriated information using a computer, there may be a remedy under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). 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