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In the wake of Hurricane Harvey and the incredible devastation wrought across the State of Texas, many Americans want to do what they can to help. Unfortunately, there are some unscrupulous individuals who will seek to personally profit from the generosity of their neighbors.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that over $20 million was lost to charity scammers after Hurricane Katrina, and this disaster has the potential to cause just as much harm. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have both issued warnings about fake charity scams that are emerging, and are urging Americans to only reach out to recognized charitable organizations.…

Continue Reading Avoiding Charity Scams in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey

On July 5, 2016, the United States District Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision in the case entitled United States v. Nosal. The case involved a former employer and others using the password of another employee to hack into his former employer’s database in order to access and take information which belonged to his former employer.

The decision has gained a lot of attention and press because Mr. Nosal’s criminal conviction was based upon his use of another employee’s passwords. There are a large number of articles and blog posts warning that the holding in the case could result in the criminal prosecution of an individual who uses a friend’s Netflix or HBO GO password to access those sites. While that could be one result of the decision, I believe the holding in the Nosal case does not currently go that far. Per the Ninth Circuit, “this appeal is not about password sharing. Nor is it about violating a company’s internal computer use policies.” Rather, the case revolves around accessing a protected computer with the intent to defraud as defined in the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030.…

Continue Reading Does Recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeal Decision Make It a Crime to Share Passwords to Online Accounts?