Recently, we have witnessed numerous examples of corporate web sites being hacked. Sony, Sega, Honda, Citibank, and Epsilon are all recent examples. When these sites are hacked often the victims are individual customers whose personal information is accessed. But, when a bank account is hacked often the object is money. When such an account is hacked such as by an unauthorized wire transfer or withdrawal, who bears the risk of loss, the bank or the customer whose account is raided?
Archive for the ‘Computer Misuse’ category
Sacking Employees for Misuse of Computers and Internet Access-Poliquin v. Devon Canada Corporation
November 20th, 2009Can an employee be dismissed for cause because he or she uses an employer’s computer and Internet access to view and transmit pornographic and racist materials in violation of a company’s Code of Conduct? This issue arose in Poliquin v. Devon Canada Corporation, 2009 ABCA 216. According to the Alberta Court of Appeal, the answer is clearly yes.
In the course of deciding that an employee could be dismissed for cause, the Court of Appeal made a number of important observations on the potential for an employee’s use of his/her employer’s Internet access to harm his/her employer and the scope of the rights employers have to monitor, control and prevent this activity.
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