A Florida man has been charged with stealing large amounts of consumer information from Acxiom Corp., one of the world’s largest database companies.
he new indictment comes on the heels of a separate case last year in which an Ohio man pleaded guilty to hacking into an Acxiom server. Acxiom manages personal information on millions of consumers, along with financial and other internal data for companies.

The new case, against Scott Levine, 45, represents “what may be the largest cases of intrusion of personal data to date,” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray said Wednesday at a news conference in Washington.

Prosecutors said the stolen data included personal information about “a great number of individuals,” but they added that the information wasn’t used for identity fraud.

Levine ran Snipermail.com Inc., which distributed ads over e-mail. Prosecutors said Levine and other Snipermail employees got into Acxiom’s server to take 8.2 gigabytes of consumer files in 2002 and 2003.

A telephone number believed to be Levine’s was no longer in service. He was indicted on 144 counts, including unauthorized access of a protected computer, conspiracy, access device fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

[url=http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/9208688.htm] Silicon Valley[/url]

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Filed under: Security - @ July 22, 2004 2:57 pm