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NP 2.0 Digital Media/Internet Law Blog > Posts > E.D. Mo.: Access By Employees May Be Unauthorized Under CFAA, SECA
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10/29/2009
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri held in a recent opinion that an employer suing a former employee can state a cause of action under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Stored Wire and Electronic Communications Act. The case is Lasco Foods, Inc. v. Hall and Shaw Sales, Marketing & Consulting, LLC, et al., No. 4:08-cv-1683 (Memorandum and Order Oct. 26, 2009).
In Lasco, two former employees of the plaintiff planned a new business venture using the plaintiff's computers and then deleted information related to their plans and other company information before leaving the plaintiff's employment.
A requisite element of a cause of action under both the CFAA and SECA is unauthorized access. Courts have divided on whether "unauthorized" access comes from an outsider to a company (i.e., a hacker) or whether a company's employees could gain unauthorized access.
The Eastern District of Missouri concluded that employees can perpetrate unauthorized access. The court reasoned that the "Defendants had authorization only to further the interests of Lasco, and did not have authorization to act in furtherance of their own business interests while employed by Lasco."
The same court issued an opinion in Lasco earlier this year in which it held that the costs an employer incurs in taking remedial measures satisfies the loss element under the CFAA. See our earlier post in the case here. | Check Effective Permissions | | /np20/np20blog/_layouts/SecurityReportAccount.aspx?id={ItemId}&List={ListId}&Type=ListItem | 0x40000000 | 0x0 | ContentType | 0x01 | 10 |
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