I feel like if Sam Altman was criminally charged under CFAA they would figure out a way to stop doing crimes all the time
September 24, 2026 at 2:57 AM
I feel like if Sam Altman was criminally charged under CFAA they would figure out a way to stop doing crimes all the time
hey look it's *actual* violations of the CFAA and wiretap statutes
October 12, 2024 at 1:24 AM
hey look it's *actual* violations of the CFAA and wiretap statutes
love that cfaa violations only apply to people =|
September 26, 2026 at 5:15 PM
love that cfaa violations only apply to people =|
We also need to have The Talk about the CFAA.
May 29, 2026 at 2:21 AM
We also need to have The Talk about the CFAA.
The CFAA is fake if you have an “agent” do it I guess. All crime is now legal
The language in coverage of these things is so obnoxious.
If I engineering, polished, and deployed a script that was designed to hack people, and left it running overnight, and it hacked people..
...That means I hacked people.
Headline should be "Google wages cyber warfare on [companies]"
If I engineering, polished, and deployed a script that was designed to hack people, and left it running overnight, and it hacked people..
...That means I hacked people.
Headline should be "Google wages cyber warfare on [companies]"
Google's Gemini becomes latest AI model to break out and hack computer systems
The disclosure comes as scrutiny over misbehaving artificial intelligence intensifies in Washington and Silicon Valley.
www.cnbc.com
September 19, 2026 at 11:30 PM
The CFAA is fake if you have an “agent” do it I guess. All crime is now legal
DOGE stealing everyone’s SSA data is 340 million CFAA violations, each one has historically led to decades in prison
Democrats should also be really thinking now about insane it's going to feel if we win in 2028 and Musk is babbling about the need for a race war and calling the president a satanic pedophile while also being the most important government contractor in the country.
there were already many reasons to do this but Elon Musk actively encouraging racist violence in Belfast should be the final straw for every UK government institution to stop doing business - including being on X - with him in any way, and for him to be barred from entry to the country.
June 10, 2026 at 6:10 AM
DOGE stealing everyone’s SSA data is 340 million CFAA violations, each one has historically led to decades in prison
it does not escape my attention that the CFAA continues to be a felony and human security researchers continue to be prosecuted and sued
if you're reading all these articles as they come out and assuming the story is "these models are escaping containment and causing danger" and not "this is a PR campaign by companies desperate to build hype" I think you are very silly.
It keeps happening...
It'd be great if these companies could spend a little bit more time on network security and a little less time vibe coding.
It'd be great if these companies could spend a little bit more time on network security and a little less time vibe coding.
August 6, 2026 at 12:59 AM
it does not escape my attention that the CFAA continues to be a felony and human security researchers continue to be prosecuted and sued
From @cathygellis.bsky.social: "I think a colorable, non-frivolous argument can be made that Elon Musk, and everyone on his DOGE team accessing the federal government’s computer infrastructure, is potentially personally liable for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)."
When It’s Not Just A Coup But A CFAA Violation Too
The hazard with landing upon a legal solution that seems too good to be true is that it often is. So as you read this post it is important to keep in mind that I may have overlooked something, and …
www.techdirt.com
February 4, 2025 at 8:50 PM
From @cathygellis.bsky.social: "I think a colorable, non-frivolous argument can be made that Elon Musk, and everyone on his DOGE team accessing the federal government’s computer infrastructure, is potentially personally liable for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)."
dont love 'circumventing paywalls is a cfaa violation'
September 18, 2026 at 1:31 AM
dont love 'circumventing paywalls is a cfaa violation'
If it isn't a crime, it's probably because CFAA requires specific intent
It is almost certainly a tort
It is almost certainly a tort
September 24, 2026 at 2:29 AM
If it isn't a crime, it's probably because CFAA requires specific intent
It is almost certainly a tort
It is almost certainly a tort
It's more than just tricky: The mental state isn't satisfied, so there's no criminal liability under the CFAA.
September 24, 2026 at 6:48 AM
It's more than just tricky: The mental state isn't satisfied, so there's no criminal liability under the CFAA.
endlessly frustrating that cfaa only applies to humans.
September 27, 2026 at 5:18 PM
endlessly frustrating that cfaa only applies to humans.
Is there any explanation for why the feds can use CFAA to go after an independent journalist but not to go after OpenAI for hacking Hugging Face that's not just cynicism/corruption?
Prosecutors seek new indictment in Tampa against Tim Burke in Fox News case
Prosecutors seek new indictment in Tampa against Tim Burke in Fox News case
The move comes days after the government opted not to appeal a judge’s order dismissing a portion of the case against the Tampa media guru.
www.tampabay.com
September 15, 2026 at 6:39 PM
Is there any explanation for why the feds can use CFAA to go after an independent journalist but not to go after OpenAI for hacking Hugging Face that's not just cynicism/corruption?
For the love of god, yes, AI sucks, culturally, economically, wholistically, environmentally but please do not use it to institute insane data laws. We don’t need a CFAA here in Australia
We don’t have a CFAA here in Australia. It’s why we don’t charge ppl for Google dorking. OpenAI just changed the scale, not the nature of the action
September 24, 2026 at 2:58 AM
For the love of god, yes, AI sucks, culturally, economically, wholistically, environmentally but please do not use it to institute insane data laws. We don’t need a CFAA here in Australia
Aaron Swartz scraped an academic database and hung himself because he was looking at 30 years under CFAA
these guys stole every American’s personal data and moved it to a server that got immediately got accessed by Russian IPs
these guys stole every American’s personal data and moved it to a server that got immediately got accessed by Russian IPs
November 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Aaron Swartz scraped an academic database and hung himself because he was looking at 30 years under CFAA
these guys stole every American’s personal data and moved it to a server that got immediately got accessed by Russian IPs
these guys stole every American’s personal data and moved it to a server that got immediately got accessed by Russian IPs
they’re already in, how about punishing them for illegal access under CFAA
February 3, 2025 at 10:48 PM
they’re already in, how about punishing them for illegal access under CFAA
i know this is completely academic at this point, but is this a cfaa violation??? www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
Trump administration concedes DOGE team may have misused Social Security data
Some DOGE personnel had more access to data than previously acknowledged, according to a court filing.
www.politico.com
January 20, 2026 at 8:09 PM
i know this is completely academic at this point, but is this a cfaa violation??? www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
Hey, I broke the news about Adafruit's CFAA lawsuit against a massively funded AI company with FBI ties this morning ⬇️
New in #cybersecurity: Adafruit to sue Flux AI over CFAA attacks (and more!), Meta denies then removes Meta glasses facial recognition code (for now), 20K Insta accounts hacked via Meta AI, a cat-detection keyboard app, Mamdani clone dreams in the comments, and more:
www.patreon.com/posts/cybers...
www.patreon.com/posts/cybers...
Cybersecurity: June 9, 2026 | Threat Model
Cybersecurity: June 9, 2026 by Threat Model on Patreon. Join Threat Model's community for exclusive content and updates.
www.patreon.com
June 9, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Hey, I broke the news about Adafruit's CFAA lawsuit against a massively funded AI company with FBI ties this morning ⬇️
Well that’s a CFAA violation if I ever saw one.
Let’s be clear, if you share your employee login with a service like this not only could your employer file a criminal complaint against the service, they could fire you and have you prosecuted as well.
Let’s be clear, if you share your employee login with a service like this not only could your employer file a criminal complaint against the service, they could fire you and have you prosecuted as well.
September 29, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Well that’s a CFAA violation if I ever saw one.
Let’s be clear, if you share your employee login with a service like this not only could your employer file a criminal complaint against the service, they could fire you and have you prosecuted as well.
Let’s be clear, if you share your employee login with a service like this not only could your employer file a criminal complaint against the service, they could fire you and have you prosecuted as well.
BORN TO VIOLATE CFAA
LAW IS A FUCK
Own Em All 2023
I am vuln man
410,757,864,530 SHELLS POPPED
LAW IS A FUCK
Own Em All 2023
I am vuln man
410,757,864,530 SHELLS POPPED
July 28, 2023 at 4:42 PM
BORN TO VIOLATE CFAA
LAW IS A FUCK
Own Em All 2023
I am vuln man
410,757,864,530 SHELLS POPPED
LAW IS A FUCK
Own Em All 2023
I am vuln man
410,757,864,530 SHELLS POPPED
Sounds like OpenAI and its board and executives should be prosecuted under the CFAA
September 6, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Sounds like OpenAI and its board and executives should be prosecuted under the CFAA
Comparar precios no es un delito informático. Amazon intenta usar la ley CFAA para bloquear herramientas de IA que buscan ofertas en su web pública. Limitar la extracción de datos públicos (scraping) amenaza la competencia, la investigación y a los consumidores. www.eff.org/es/deeplink...
Comparison Shopping Is Not a (Computer) Crime
The Ninth Circuit should follow Van Buren’s lead and interpret the CFAA narrowly, as Congress intended.
www.eff.org
April 20, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Comparar precios no es un delito informático. Amazon intenta usar la ley CFAA para bloquear herramientas de IA que buscan ofertas en su web pública. Limitar la extracción de datos públicos (scraping) amenaza la competencia, la investigación y a los consumidores. www.eff.org/es/deeplink...
These are not AGI agents. The companies are framing it as the agents doing unforeseeable "hacks" because they want PR and to avoid liability under the CFAA. These are tools humans are giving commands and internet access. Functionally no different than pointing a Metasploit package at someone else.
September 24, 2026 at 3:17 AM
These are not AGI agents. The companies are framing it as the agents doing unforeseeable "hacks" because they want PR and to avoid liability under the CFAA. These are tools humans are giving commands and internet access. Functionally no different than pointing a Metasploit package at someone else.
The only time I’ve ever rooted for the CFAA
okay so what legal authority does elon musk have to commandeer the office of personnel management and access reams of sensitive data? www.reuters.com/world/us/mus...
Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say
Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.
www.reuters.com
January 31, 2025 at 10:31 PM
The only time I’ve ever rooted for the CFAA
Removing 230 isn't what you want. What you want is to reform CFAA such that big companies can't stop you from bringing your own algorithms
February 5, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Removing 230 isn't what you want. What you want is to reform CFAA such that big companies can't stop you from bringing your own algorithms