Expert: Chris Wagoner - 12/15/2009

Question
Good morning!

Love the board here, great work!

I've got a bit of an issue. I was in a relationship with an attorney (non-related specialization). It's ended and he's not all that happy about the ending. I live in Texas.

Once, I had given him my password and access to my airline account so he could check my departure gate as I was hurrying to a flight and we were on the phone. That was a couple of years ago. As we were breaking up, he took that password as a guess and went into one of my personal email (Yahoo) accounts. Of course he found things he didn't like (witch hunts always find witches) and he even forwarded emails to himself and continued the forwarding on to others.

He continues to contact me, asking questions, wanting to reconcile, yet also reminding me that I didn't disclose past relationships and various "moral trespass" and thinly veiling threats that he knows my social security number because we ran background checks on each other (asset protection, etc.). The recent comment of "you should really tell your family and friends about everything" leads me to believe he's threatening defamation.

He sees nothing legally wrong with what he did, he just "guessed" my password and arguably was given it. He had given me one of his passwords and his permission because "he had nothing to hide." I however, never gave my permission. My research and thoughts are that he grossly overstepped his authorization and by forwarding my personal emails went even further down the path of illegality.

Honestly, I have no desire to hurt him. I will however do what is needed to protect me, my children and to get him to go away. My questions: Illegal entry to my email? Illegal to forward and to share with others? What if anything happens to his license to practice law (TX and CO) if I report this and I do have proof of the violations?

Thanks so much.


Answer
Hi Puzzled,

Any access to a computer or computer network is illegal in all states that I have ever researched. In TX here is the law that covers it, definitions are inclusive,

s 33.02. Breach of COMPUTER Security

 (a) A person commits an offense if the person:
  (1) uses a COMPUTER without the effective consent of the owner of the
 COMPUTER or a person authorized to license access to the COMPUTER and the
 actor knows that there exists a COMPUTER security system intended to prevent
 him from making that use of the COMPUTER;  or
  (2) gains access to data stored or maintained by a COMPUTER without the
 effective consent of the owner or licensee of the data and the actor knows
 that there exists a COMPUTER security system intended to prevent him from
 gaining access to that data.
 (b) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally or knowingly gives
a password, identifying code, personal identification number, debit card
number, bank account number, or other confidential information about a COMPUTER
security system to another person without the effective consent of the person
employing the COMPUTER security system to restrict the use of a COMPUTER or to
restrict access to data stored or maintained by a COMPUTER.
 (c) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.

If he is convicted of that crime I woudl think that it could be taken before the bar in Texas to see what they would do.

If you were to report it, you report it to your local police. Most agencies have investigators trained in this area now, if not they can refer you to the next level up in law enforcement that does.