Computer hacking historically has been seen as the province of lowlife criminals existing in the darkened recesses of some faraway place looking to make a dishonest buck. However, as individuals increase their online presence and, thereby, their digital vulnerability, unauthorized access to a person’s computers and to email and social media accounts is increasingly being used as a tool by people in the “real world” to cause vengeance and mischief. Federal laws, such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Stored Communications Act (SCA), originally enacted to combat the former scenario by criminalizing it1 and by providing certain civil remedies to victims,2 increasingly are being applied to personal disputes.
One case of an alleged personal vendetta is Sewell v. Bernardin,3 in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit explored application of the statutes of limitations for civil lawsuits under the CFAA and SCA—an issue of first impression in the circuit. The decision is notable not just for the guidance it provided regarding the operation of the statutes of limitations for civil lawsuits under those federal laws but also for the many issues that the Second Circuit left open for consideration on another day.
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