No. 19-783 IN THE Supreme Court of the United States NATHAN VAN BUREN, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES, Respondent. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES CouRT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRcuIT BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE COMPUTER SECURITY RESEARCHERS, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION, CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY & TECHNOLOGY, BUGCROWD, RAPID7, SCYTHE, AND TENABLE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER ANDREW CROCKER Counsel of Record NAOMI GILENS ELECTRONic FRONTIER FOUNDATION 815 Eddy Street San Francisco, California 94109 (415) 436-9333
[email protected] Counsel for Amici Curiae 296514 A (800) 274-3321 • (800) 359-6859 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................i TABLE OF CITED AUTHORITIES ..............iii INTEREST OF AMICI CURIAE ..................1 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT .....................4 ARGUMENT....................................5 I. The Work of the Computer Security Research Community Is Vital to the Public Interest...................................5 A. Computer Security Benefits from the Involvement of Independent Researchers ...........................5 B. Security Researchers Have Made Important Contributions to the Public Interest by Identifying Security Threats in Essential Infrastructure, Voting Systems, Medical Devices, Vehicle Software, and More ...................10 II. The Broad Interpretation of the CFAA Adopted by the Eleventh Circuit Chills Valuable Security Research. ................16 ii Table of Contents Page A. The Eleventh Circuit’s Interpretation of the CFAA Would Extend to Violations of Website Terms of Service and Other Written Restrictions on Computer Use. .................................16 B. Standard Computer Security Research Methods Can Violate Written Access Restrictions...........................18 C. The Broad Interpretation of the CFAA Discourages Researchers from Pursuing and Disclosing Security Flaws ...............................22 D. Voluntary Disclosure Guidelines and Industry-Sponsored Bug Bounty Programs A re Not Sufficient to Mitigate the Chill .