Law note · Minnesota
Minnesota Unauthorized Computer Access, penetrating a computer security system
What it asks of an app
- A public page behind no login, access code, or other computer security system has nothing for you to penetrate under this statute's own terms, though no Minnesota court has confirmed this reading.
- Defeating a login or other technical security measure to access a Minnesota-connected computer system is squarely what this statute targets.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_web
What we found
Subdivision 1 provides that a person is guilty of unauthorized computer access if the person intentionally and without authorization attempts to or does penetrate a computer security system or electronic terminal.
This ties Minnesota's authorization test to circumventing an actual technical security measure rather than a bare access without permission formulation, a meaningfully narrower and more code-centric test than some readings of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA): a plain crawl of a public page behind no security system would not, on the statute's own terms, appear to fall within it.
The enhanced felony and gross-misdemeanor tiers in subdivisions 2 and 3 are keyed specifically to electronic terminal access through opening a panel or access door, reading as aimed at ATM or point-of-sale skimming hardware rather than general network intrusion; the base misdemeanor crime in subdivision 1 is the one of general application to network or web access. No reported Minnesota appellate decision applies this section to scraping or public-page access.