Hacker jailed for 8 years
p2p news / p2pnet: Scott Levine, 46, indicted in 2004 for hacking into an Acxiom Corporation server, has been sentenced to eight years in federal jail. Levine and others were accused of downloading 8.2 gigs of data.
His indictment followed investigations into an unrelated case which led to the arrest and indictment of Daniel Baas, of Milford, Ohio, also accused of downloading sensitive information from Acxiom.
Levine was sentenced after being found guilty of 120 counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer, two counts of access device fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice, says the US Department of Justice.
He was the controlling owner of Snipermail and while working with others at Snipermail, “stole more than one billion records containing personal information – including names, physical and e-mail addresses, as well as phone numbers – belonging to Acxiom Corporation clients, from approximately January 2003 through July 2003,” says the DoJ.
He used “sophisticated decryption software” to illegally obtain passwords and, “exceed his authorized access to Acxiom databases, which contained information belonging to Acxiom’s clients,” a statement goes on.
Discover AOL says Levine’s defense claimed he was framed by employees who wanted to take over the company and, “For its part, Acxiom has admitted there was a vulnerability that fell below its standards and apologized to its clients.”
“Former Snipermail employees, who agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation, testified to how Levine and others concealed physical evidence relating to the intrusions and thefts of data,” says the DoJ.
However, it says there’s no evidence that any of the stolen data stolen were used in identity theft or credit card fraud schemes although, “some of the data was [sic] resold to a broker for use in an ad campaign.”
Also See:
indicted in 2004 – Florida man hacked dbase, July 22, 2004
Department of Justice – Former officer of Internet company sentenced in case of masive data theft from Acxiom Corporation, February 22, 2006
Discover AOL – Web Villain Rap Sheet
February 24th, 2006 at 12:09 am
Better to kill someone. You’ll do less time.
February 26th, 2006 at 7:02 am
I was just thinking that lol. Talk about wrong priorities.
I mean sure, hacking into a firms customer database is clearly wrong, but 8 years!!, my god. I’m pretty sure murders, rapists and armed robbers get about the same time if not less.
What is it about techoology and punishments? It seems as if people find it hard to classify such actions and opt to give the most harsh verdicts possible. I’m also pretty such it has alot to do with money. Killing people on the street doesn’t cost companies/government any money, so why should they care?
A good example would be camcorders in theatres, i mean come on a 5+ jail term for that!! you have got to be kidding. I’m not saying it’s right to do such things, but surely that doesn’t compare to rapists, murders and armed robbers? Unless i’m missing something.
I guess goverments don’t like to preach “the punishment should fit the crime”. If that were the case, this guy would be getting maybe 1/2 years max + fines etc.