Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Remedies Potentially Available to Hawaii Employers for Deleted Files
By Online Security Authority on Aug 10, 2009 in Thoughts on Security
The federal Eastern District Court of Missouri recently issued a ruling that could broaden the remedies available to Hawaii employers for damage caused to computers by departing employees.
Specifically, in Lasco Foods, Inc. v. Hall and Shaw Sales, Marketing, & Consulting, the Court interpreted the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) to permit a federal remedy for employers whose former employees delete and/or steal company information from laptop computers.
In that case, two managers left the plaintiff company and, according to the plaintiff, failed to return their laptop computers when requested and copied or downloaded confidential and trade secret information. The files on the computer containing such information were then deleted prior to the laptop computers being returned. The plaintiff filed a complaint alleging several causes of action, including a claim under CFAA.
The Court rejected the defendants’ argument in a motion to dismiss that the plaintiff was prohibited from asserting a claim under CFAA. The CFAA permits a cause of action for any person who suffers damage or loss by a violation of the act, so long as the damage sustained during a one-year period totals at least $5,000 in value.
The CFAA defines damage as “any impairment to the integrity or availability of data, a program, a system or information.” The CFAA defines loss as “any reasonable cost to any victim, including the cost of responding to an offense, conducting a damage assessment, and restoring the data, program, system or information to its condition prior to the offense, and any revenue lost, cost incurred, or other consequential damages incurred because of interruption of service.”
The Court found that the plaintiff sufficiently alleged facts to satisfy both the “damage” and “loss” test. The Court found that the company sufficiently pled loss with its allegations that defendants deleted information, requiring forensic analysis and other remedial measures to retrieve and analyze defendants’ computers and restore the data. The Court’s ruling did not require, as other case law on the issue suggested, that the subject information must be destroyed on the employer’s network computer as opposed to a laptop computer.
The Court’s interpretation of CFAA is more in line with Hawaii criminal statutory law addressing criminal computer-related activity. For instance, HRS § 708-892 states that a person has committed the crime of “Computer Damage in the First Degree” where:
(a) The person knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and thereby knowingly causes unauthorized damage to a computer, computer system, or computer network; or
(b) The person intentionally accesses a computer, computer system, or computer network without authorization and thereby knowingly causes damage.
Under the statute, the damage must: “Result in a loss aggregating at least $5,000 in value, including the costs associated with diagnosis, repair, replacement, or remediation, during any one-year period to one or more individuals.” Also, computer damage in the first degree is a class B felony.
The Hawaii penal code explicitly permits the conviction of a person that causes damage to not only a computer network, but also a company-issued computer. Generally, in most garden-variety cases where a former employee has been found to have deleted/destroyed computer files, the cost to engage a computer forensics professional to assess and restore or attempt to restore lost data will exceed $5,000 under the Hawaii criminal statute and CFAA.
Thus, a Hawaii employer could have a federal civil remedy available in federal court in addition to the ability to invoke Hawaii criminal statutory law for damage caused to either its network or company-owned computers.
Roman Amaguin Esq. is a Honolulu attorney that specializes in employment and labor law. Visit his websites at: http://www.virtualhawaiiemploymentlawyer.com and http://www.amaguinlaw.com.
Written by: OSAblogger / Bill Wardell - Please Read Our Latest OSA eZine Edition
Other Places You Can Find Me…
Digg - LinkedIn - OSA Community - Facebook - StumbleUpon - MyBlogLog
If you're a concerned parent, you may want to subscribe to the: OSA~RSS while your here, please JOIN our: OSA Forum... also Follow Me On Twitter Thanks for visiting!
OSA Related Posts -
The Anonymous Surfer: 10 Methods to Ensure Your Online Search Security It is very disconcerting to know that any search for information and data online can be traced back to the user. Imagine using a search engine for hours at a time everyday and then finding out later that your online history, reading habits and finances can be used as a...... -
Everyone's a Geek Now: The Year in Technology By Paul Wagenseil, Friday, December 29, 2006 In 2006, geek culture went mainstream, for better or for worse. Video-game consoles became front-page news, Internet video clips affected politics and big business, millions of people joined social-networking sites and bought flat-screen TVs â and everyone feared hackers and online identity thieves.Still,...... - Learn More About Computer Backup Programs Everyone has done it before, everyone will do it again, and everyone hates it. You accidentally delete a file that you really needed or you make incorrect changes to an important file, and the original is lost forever. Maybe your computer crashed or a virus caused damage to your hard......
- Do You Know How To Choose A Good Web Hosting Provider? Find Out More! The ultimate goal of most web sites is getting profit. Thus any web site needs to work properly in order to attract customers. It is impossible to have a good-working web site without perfect web hosting services. Once the customer has an interest in your business you want to be......
- 10 Tips on How to Get Rid of Viruses and Keep Your Computer Healthy Each time you go online, your computer will be under attack from viruses that have the potential to destroy your files and harm your computer. Like their real world namesake, computer viruses can either be easy or difficult to handle, primarily because new ones are created nearly everyday. If you've......
OSA Related Websites -
Security, Stability, and Interoperability Issues on VoIP Implementation Now we have accepted that VoIP is no longer just a phone service, it has become feature rich as it merges with computer configurations. The VoIP's existence has changed considerably over the last few years, coupled with the availability of broadband connection to the Internet, plus leaps in multimedia technology...... - Learn How To Control Your Computers Privacy Did you realize that every time you use the internet or delete a file off your computer you leave a footprint that can still be traced? Unfortunately these files don’t just disappear like most people hope they are. Instead they are still saved on your computer, leaving little footprints that......
-
Beware of Stimulus Scams A disturbing new scam that is popping up across the nation relates to President Obama's recent stimulus plan to aid the nation's economy. With the nation hearing each day about bail out money going to big businesses, it is a reasonable assumption for consumers to think they too will get...... -
Save Time, Money and Space in Over 80 Ways If you're looking for handy gadgets, tools and various items that can save you time, money or space (or all three!) this list of more than 80 top products is just what you need. Everyone's got saving money on their minds these days. Some of us are always looking to...... - Personal Antivirus for best Computer Security Are you frustrated by the false security alerts and pending analysis and dispose of the personal anti-virus? Unfortunately a number of people lose much time and effort trying to erase this bad and harmful spyware on your PC's gross instead of taking the process much easier because of their lack......
