RE: Legal Liability under 1986 ECPA

[" Jermaine Howard" <jhoward () kumhotech com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: firewall-wizards-admin () nfr com
[mailto:firewall-wizards-admin () nfr com]On Behalf Of Steven M. Bellovin
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 9:05 PM
To: Jeff Newton
Cc: firewall-wizards () nfr com
Subject: Re: [fw-wiz] Legal Liability under 1986 ECPA


In message <3C5597DF.6FAC747 () pmc-sierra com>, Jeff Newton writes:
> I'm pushing my company to require a signed AUP, rather than simply
> posting the security policy on their intranet.  I was hoping to cite
> specific court cases to management illustrating the consequences of not
> obtaining employee signage.
>
> Administrators, managment, and security analysts have supposedly been
> held liable for scanning/sniffing,etc actions if employee permission
> isn't first obtained as per the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy
> Act.
>
> Does anyone have specific case references?

It's a complex question with minimal case law.  I included the
information I could find in Chapter 12 of "Firewalls and Internet
Security" (see the URL below), but there's no clear answer.  The
Justice Department does recommend a warning banner, but the legal
need is shakey.  This is especially true for corporate nets, where the
entire net and the computers on it are owned by the company, and the
legislative history of the ECPA clearly shows that Congress did not
intend to protect employees in that situation.

That said, ask a lawyer.


  Yeah I would agree with that statement above. Our company has all the
employees
when hired in read and sign our company policy (which I do believe will hold
more
weight in court than a post on the intranet). In it it gives our network
admin. the
right to access any data going through the firewall and being accessed by
corporate
equipment ie. desktops, servers, etc. There is plenty more but from what I
have seen
that "contract" permits me to monitor our equipment with that worry.

Jermaine Howard
Network Admin.
Kumho Technical Center
711 S. Cleveland-Massillon Rd.
Akron, Ohio 44333

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