§ 7.04 The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2020

§ 7.04 The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986

The amendments codified in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA)⁴⁹ improved the 1984 Act by eliminating ambiguous language, structuring offenses more coherently, defining additional terms, and expanding its scope to other acts of computer crime.

In particular, three crimes were added to the CFAA. First, Subsection (a)(4) was added in order to penalize theft of property through use of a computer which occurred as a result of a scheme to defraud. Second, Subsection (a)(5) introduced a "malicious damage" felony to be applied in instances where efforts to intentionally access a federal interest computer without authorization, and alter, damage or destroy information within the computer or prevent authorized use of the computer, resulted in damages of $1,000 or more. Third, Subsection (a)(6) addressed the issue of hackers and prohibited the trafficking of passwords without authorization if the trafficking affected interstate commerce or if the password was used by or for the U.S. government.

In addition to incorporating sections to the statute, the CFAA also eliminated the ambiguous language contained in Subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) of the 1984 Act. Although Subsection (a)(1) remained essentially unchanged, the rather confusing "or...