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When Is Employee Hacking a Crime?

By Richard Raysman and Peter Brown

On July 18, 2016, Christopher Correa, the former director of the St. Louis Cardinals, pled guilty to five counts of “unauthorized access of a protected computer” in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA, 18 U.S.C. 1030 et seq.). Correa was found guilty of hacking into the Houston Astros' internal database by using credentials of former Cardinals employees that now worked for the Astros. His pending prison sentence is nearly four years.

Two weeks earlier, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued another opinion in the long-running litigation Nosal v. United States, holding that Nosal violated the CFAA in 2004 by using a former colleague's password to access his former employer's computer after his own access had been terminated. United States v. Nosal, — F.3d —-, 2016 WL 3608752 (9th Cir. July 5, 2016). Nosal had initially been charged with conspiracy, theft of trade secrets, and three computer fraud counts. His sentence included prison time, probation and nearly $1 million in fines and restitution.

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