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UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS |
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Unfortunately, in today's society unauthorized access of company's and individuals e-mail accounts and computer systems are becoming more and more prevalent. Often times the person gaining access is not some stranger 2,000 miles away, but is a current or former employee, a former spouse or significant other, a neighbor or some other individual that is actually known to the victim.
One of the first reactions is usually "what do I do?", because realistically it isn't something we run across every day. One of the first things to do is to not to totally panic, most of the unauthorized access incidents we have seen are not the result of super smart computer nerd hackers, but more likely someone that you have regular contact with that was able to learn or figure out your passwords. Therefore the first thing I would suggest is to immediately change all of your passwords, to hopefully prevent future access. I would then contact some computer specialists in forensic computing and see i9f they can start to identify what was actually done. Did they just gain access to your e-mail account or were they actually in your computer? What sorts of things were they looking at? How often did they gain access? With this information you can start to figure out if this is something worth pursuing.
If you determine if it is worth pursuing, that's where we come in. Most states have now passed laws concerning unauthorized access of computer networks. Usually it is both a civil and criminal offense. Additionally, if the access was done by a competitor or an agent of a competitor it could be considered industrial espionage or unfair business practices. We can help you navigate the waters of this area of law and plan a strategy that works best for you and/or your business.
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YOUR COMPUTER
LEGAL TEAM
Peter C. Lemire
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