The former owner of Snipermail has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the theft of over 1 billion private data records. Using his position and illegally obtained passwords he stole personal details belonging to the data operator Acxiom and was shown no pity by the judge hearing the case.
Scott Levine, the former owner of e-mail marketing company Snipermail Inc., was sentenced to eight years in prison for the theft of over 1 billion private records.
Florida resident Levine, 46, was found guilty on 120 counts of unauthorised access of a protected computer, two counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. The prosecution proved that between January and July 2003 Levine stole more than 1 billion private records that contained names, physical and e-mail addresses as well as telephone numbers. The information was the property of Acxiom Corp., a repository of personal, financial and company data, including customer information held for other companies. Levine used "sophisticated decryption software" and his position at Snipermail to illegally obtain passwords and exceed his authorised access to Acxiom's databases.
There is no reason to believe that any of the stolen information has been used for identity theft or credit card fraud. However, some of the records were sold on to other firms for advertising and marketing purposes.
One attorney involved in the case said that at first glance downloading computer files in the privacy of your office may not seem so terribly serious. However, when private data worth several million dollars are stolen from a well-established and reputable company, the punisment should correspond.
“It is very important that insiders are punished every time they commit an internal crime. That is why we are all for the very severe and public punishment of such incidents. A little loss of reputation is worth it to avoid greater losses further down the line as a result of fraud or theft, and it also helps to improve the work climate within a company," believes Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: ComputerWorld
