A CAUSE FOR CONFUSION: THE COMPUTER FRAUD ANDABUSE ACT
A feature article in NOVA Law Review by Tripp Scott's Jake S. Blumstein, Jonathan M. Bornstein and Luis Duran
From employees who improperly access employer information post-termination to espionage campaigns initiated by foreign governments and international terror organizations, computer fraud and hacking have become rampant in our society. While there are several federal laws aimed at thwarting computer fraud and abuse, the federal courts have interpreted and applied those statutes in significantly different ways as the statutes have evolved—often hampering their efficacy.
Tripp Scott Attorneys Jake Blumstein, Jonathan Bornstein, and Luis Duran recently authored an article published by Nova Law Review, (download link below), that explores the nuances between our federal circuits in interpreting and applying the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In the article, entitled A Cause for Confusion: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Blumstein, Bornstein, and Duran address various federal court opinions and analyze their precedential value—providing much-needed guidance to practitioners in an otherwise oblique landscape. The dichotomy in federal jurisprudence presents itself from issues as simple as the applicable pleading standard to the substantive breadth of the federal law.
Around the time the article was submitted for publishing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed a Chinese state-linked firm hacked approximately 260,000 internet-connected devices, many of which were in the United States. As computer literacy, availability and mainstream usage continues to proliferate, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act remains a “cause for confusion” in an era where both nefarious computer conduct and flagitious hacking by bad actors—both foreign and domestic—is inevitable.
Tripp Scott is prepared to assist its clients in prosecuting and defending claims of computer fraud, computer abuse, and hacking in violation of state and federal law. For more information, please contact your Tripp Scott attorney.
We invite you to download the article as published in NOVA Law Review
