National Staffing Solutions Sues Former Employee Under Computer Fraud Statute
Lawsuit alleges former nurse recruiter stole candidate database after loading computer sharing software
National Staffing Solutions has filed an unusual data theft lawsuit in Florida (Complaint attached). While data theft cases are not uncommon, it is rare to see one that seems to fit the requirements for relief under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal law that today is rarely used in civil data theft litigation. The rare use arises out of a 2021 U.S Supreme Court case, Van Buren v. United States. In a nutshell, the Supreme Court held that merely accessing your company computer for a wrongful purpose did not violate the Act. This eliminated many "garden variety" data thefts from the Act's coverage.
What makes this case different is the method allegedly used by the former employee, Jario Armstrong. In the words of the Complaint: