In this week's post, we see that the Supreme Court redefined the reach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by narrowing the scope of “unauthorized access.”

Supreme Court Narrows Reach of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Ignoring partisan lines, the Supreme Court voted to narrow the reach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) this month in Van Buren v. United States. The 1986 American technology law has long been the cornerstone of cybersecurity prosecution, but the High Court significantly narrowed the scope of the CFAA by redefining what “authorized access” means.

The CFAA makes it illegal for a person to access a computer without authorization and provides both criminal and civil penalties for such violations. Until the recent Supreme Court decision, the key CFAA language, “intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access,” had been interpreted broadly by some courts to mean that the CFAA would apply to a person who had authorized access but exceeded their authorization to access such information. 

Read more here.

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In addition to publishing Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas. Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer. For more on the latest developments in IP law, see the blogs Ideate and IP Questions Answered.