14 DAY TRIAL // The issue of cyber crimes is an extremely serious one, especially to the cases concerning the theft of confidential information, which usually are later on used for fraudulent purposes.
The latest example of such a situation comes from the United States, and is perhaps one of the largest computer crime cases ever. Thus, Scott Levine, former chief executive of the bulk e-mail firm Snipermail.com Inc is accused of stealing 8.2 gigabytes of information from Acxiom, one of the world's largest database companies, including names, social security numbers and bank accounts, as reported by David Hammer for The Associated Press.
As federal prosecutors opened their case against Levine, four Acxiom Corp. employees told jurors Tuesday about their discovery that the database-management company's computer system had been penetrated, and how they responded.
Scott Levine has illegally downloaded the information between April 2002 and August 2003, stealing data containing names, home addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, bank, and credit card numbers involving millions of individuals. But prosecutors determined that no identity fraud was committed. There was, however, a sale of information to a marketing company, prosecutors say.
However, the prosecutors have established 144 counts against Levine, amongst which unauthorized access of a protected computer, conspiracy, access device fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, and it remains to be seen what his punishment will be, although it is very likely to be quite a harsh one, considering the seriousness of his actions.