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ARTICLE · 13 AUGUST 2012

4th Circuit Issues Employee Friendly CFAA Opinion

Fisher Phillips LLP
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As readers of this blog know, we have been following the diverse and seemingly irreconciliable decisions from federal courts regarding the scope of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA"), 18 U.S.C. § 1030.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Brent Cossrow
Brent Cossrow
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As readers of this blog know, we have been following the diverse and seemingly irreconciliable decisions from federal courts regarding the scope of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA"), 18 U.S.C. § 1030.  Last week, in WEC Carolina Energy Solutions LLC ("WEC") v. Miller, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit weighed in on what continues to be one of the hottest debates within the federal judiciary in recent memory: whether the CFAA applies to disloyal employees who access their employer's workplace computers to misappropriate, copy or otherwise transfer corporate data.  

The facts in WEC v. Miller were similar to those in other recent CFAA cases.  According to the Fourth Circuit's opinion, a copy of which is available below, WEC provided specialized welding and related services to the power generation sector. As the Fourth Circuit explained, Arc Energy Services, Inc. ("Arc") was one of WEC's competitors in South Carolina.  WEC provided

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