By Jake Shaw
NewsFactor Network
July 23, 2004 11:35AM
A Florida man has been charged with stealing data from Acxiom, a marketing company that handles customer information for some of the country's largest companies. The Justice Department says it may be the largest case of illegal invasion and theft of personal information to date.
A Boca Raton, Florida resident was indicted on July 21st in an alleged scheme to steal vast amounts of personal data from Acxiom , a U.S. marketing company that handles customer information on behalf of firms such as GE, Microsoft , IBM and many credit card issuers.
In a statement, the Justice Department said the charges may represent the largest case of illegal invasion and theft of personal information to date.
The 144-count indictment against Scott Levine, 45, includes charges of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice, according to the Justice Department. Federal officials said Levine is accused of stealing around 8.2 gigabytes of data from Acxiom over the Internet, resulting in losses totaling over US$7 million.
"The protection of personal information stored on our nation's computer systems is critical to public trust in those networks and to the health of our economy," Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray said in a statement. "We will aggressively pursue those who steal private information from computer networks and make it clear that there are serious consequences for such crimes."
Controlling Force
Levine is described in the indictment as "the controlling force" in Snipermail.com, a Florida-based company which distributed advertisements via the Internet on behalf of advertisers and brokers.
The new indictment follows a separate case last year, in which an Ohio man, Daniel Baas, pleaded guilty to hacking into an Acxiom server. Acxiom, with offices in Little Rock and Conway, Arkansas, manages personal information on millions of consumers, along with financial and other internal data for companies.
The invasions from Snipermail were discovered during the investigation of the intrusion by Baas at Acxiom last year, Federal officials said.
Computer Forensics
The FBI's regional computer forensics laboratory in Dallas, Texas, and computer forensic experts from the FBI and the Secret Service, were let loose on the hackers.
The indictment alleges that Levine and other workers at Snipermail.com attempted to hide computers from investigators. Six employees at the company agreed to cooperate with the investigation, Federal officials said.
Improved Security
Acxiom said in a statement that since the intrusions were detected in the summer of 2003, it had taken steps to improve its computer-security systems.
"We've improved our intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning and encryption systems, enhanced our internal and external audit practices, and are fully committed to working with our clients and outside experts to ensure continuous improvement in our security environment," the Acxiom statement said.
"There has been a year of investigation by us, by law enforcement and by our clients, and we have found no indication that there has been any identity theft," Acxiom spokesman Dale Ingram told NewsFactor. "The information stolen was intended to be used to build data products."
