Notify Employees of the Limitation on Use of Company Computers

In one recent case, an employer found out the hard way that an employee was transmitting corporate information. An employee emailed company information and documents to his personal email account, which he shared with his wife. The documents he sent to his personal account included financial statements of the company, marketing budgets, confidential patient information and a list of names of current and past patients.

In addition, it was alleged that the employee accessed the company's web site using his employee login after the employee left his employment. The company sued the former employee under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The Court did not agree with the former employer finding that the employee's access to the computer while employed did not violate the CFAA because the employee had permission during employment to use the computer. There was no evidence presented by the former employer that the employee had agreed to keep any emails information confidential and/or return or destroy any such documentation upon separation of employment. (LVRC Holdings LLC v. Brekka).

This case is instructive for employers to understand their proactive obligations to monitor employee use of computers and email systems and to restrict and limit the type of information that is accessible to employees.

• Limit access to information and documents only to those employees who have a legitimate business need to know and restrict access to others.
• Create and implement a policy notifying employees that they cannot duplicate, disseminate or otherwise distribute any company information.
• Create and implement a policy requiring employees upon separation of employment to immediately return any and all documents, information, etc pertaining to the company and provided to the employee during employment.
• Create and implement a policy deleting access to company computers immediately upon an employee's separation of employment.