Legal Question in Technology Law in Illinois

Logging onto former employer's network after resigning

Several months ago I resigned from my employer due to sexual harassment, software violation laws, and constructive discharge. I and the network administrator of the company knew all the passwords to all servers and users. Everyone knew this, including our managers. After I and the Network Admin resigned, the company did not change their passwords. Several months later we were able to log into our former managers email account and copy emails that would bust them in their wrongful actions.

They have since figured it out, and were able to get a subpoena to have our ISP's release our contact information. (They tracked the logins back to us

The servers are public servers; have no logon warning banners (nothing saying that unauthorized users can't log on), they did not change their passwords after we left. No harm or damage was done. The only thing that was done is some emails from my former manager were collected in order to help prove our case to unemployment that we left with good cause.

Is the action above illegal, what are the penalties? Can the company do anything about our actions? Any helpful advice you can give us?

Thanks

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