A company can recover damages from its former employee in connection with his hacking into its payroll system to inflate his pay, accessing its proprietary files without authorization and hijacking its website, a federal court ruled. Tyan, Inc. v. Yovan Garcia, Case No. CV 15-05443- MWF (JPRx) (C.D. Cali. May 2, 2017).

The Defendant

A terminated executive who accessed co-worker emails in the process of reporting possible company wrongdoing lost his appeal on several grounds. In Brown Jordan Intl, Inc. v. Carmicle, the Eleventh Circuit found that the employee violated both the Stored Communications Act (SCA) and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

Carmicle reported to the

In March 2010, we reported on a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey that allowed an employee’s retaliation claim to proceed to trial under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”) on the ground that he was engaged in protected whistle blowing activity – voicing concerns regarding his employer’s