Eight Years for Data Thief

[engine]

A bulk e-mailer who looted more than a billion records with personal information from a data warehouse has been sentenced to eight years in prison, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Eight Years for Data Thief [news.com.com]

[edited by: trillianjedi at 4:23 pm (utc) on Feb. 23, 2006]
[edit reason] Fixed spelling [/edit]

[walkman]

good, let's hope they get the message. Now that everything is online, this is no joke.

[oneguy]

This is not the first prosecution to arise out of poor security practices on Acxiom's file transfer protocol server (FTP).

I have no love for spam, but the spam was a side issue here. Is anyone holding Acxiom accountable for poor practices? I'm no security expert, but it seems that Acxiom has some liability / accountability here too. Anyone know if that has been pursued?

Axciom "says it operates the world's largest repository of consumer data, and counts major banks, credit card companies and the U.S. government among its customers."

The amount of data collection happening out there already makes me feel vulnerable to who knows what.

[sun818]

> let's hope they get the message.

Let's hope who gets the message? Spammers? Hackers?

I wish it was a pure case of e-mail spammer being sent to jail, but this sounds more like a hacking case. When's the last time you were hacked versus being spammed?

[incrediBILL]

Is anyone holding Acxiom accountable for poor practices?

No more than I hold my neighbors accountable for their house being broken into and their widescreen TV stolen.

If society didn't have lazy scum we wouldn't need locks.

[Staffa]

If society didn't have lazy scum we wouldn't need locks.

Agreed, but we do have these shady characters and with the kind of data this company is storing it should at least make sure that the locks on their doors are secure and working.

[oneguy]

No more than I hold my neighbors accountable for their house being broken into and their widescreen TV stolen.

Yeah... but if you are paying your neighbor to hold your sensitive data and they don't take appropriate measures to protect that data, then it's a different issue. Someone is paying that neighbor (Acxiom) to hold the data.

...Unless they collect it on their own and then sell it, but I'm not really sure which is which. Even so... if your enighbor is collecting data on you and then gives it to someone who uses it to harm you, would there be some type of issue in that case?

[alexdino1]

Then the question is: why would you pay THAT neighbor (Axiom) to hold the data for you? If they don't have sturdy locks on the door, why give them the data. Why not give it to somebody that has a better lock?

[walkman]

>> Let's hope who gets the message? Spammers? Hackers?
>>I wish it was a pure case of e-mail spammer being sent to jail, but this sounds more like a hacking case. When's the last time you were hacked versus being spammed?
as much as I hate spammers, a data thief is much, much worse.

[JudgeJeffries]

Lets put this into perspective. He didnt commit fraud with the info and he didnt steal from the punters whose identity was revealed. He didnt participate in identity theft. Whilst spammers are pond life this guy was at the bottom end of the theft scale and 8 years is a bit steep. The real rogues are the guys who had a million peoples data entrusted to them but didnt keep it secret.

[rohitj]

Given that Acxiom is one of the largest providers of such a service, they are likely more susceptible to hacking/thievery attempts. They may have a state-of-the-art security system but if you have hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people trying to break-in, occasionally one might succeed. People always go after the big guy--does this mean they don't offer the best service? No. It may be a crime if acxiom didn't correct whatever security flaws occured.

Try to look at the big picture--if the execs or employees were prosecuted, everyone would be discouraged from pursuing such a business. And what's more, the big guys would be penalized for being big and taking punches--even if they do a good job overall warding such attempts.

[old_expat]

"Try to look at the big picture--if the execs or employees were prosecuted, everyone would be discouraged from pursuing such a business."

I guess I see a different picture. I seriously doubt that " .. everyone would be discouraged from pursuing such a business." I believe some folks would come along and build a better (safer) mousetrap .. so to speak.

"And what's more, the big guys would be penalized for being big and taking punches-"

Eh? They have stepped up and admitted they were to blame. I doubt very seriously if the big guys are "being big". Prosecution would be " .. punches .." and I doubt seriously if it would be voluntary.

"-even if they do a good job overall warding such attempts."

"Good job overall .."

How much data loss is too much? How many billion records were stolen? How much/has any data has been stolen that has not been disclosed/discovered?

[old_expat]

""Is anyone holding Acxiom accountable for poor practices?""

"No more than I hold my neighbors accountable for their house being broken into and their widescreen TV stolen.'

Incredibill, I *tend* to agree, but the analogy you used is not so good.

It would be more like if Brett asked me to keep the take from Pubcon in my safe for awhile, but I left the key to my house under the mat and the combination to my safe on a post-it on my monitor.

Do I bear some responsibility? Yes .. especially if Brett or any of the moderators can catch me before I make it across the border!

"If society didn't have lazy scum we wouldn't need locks."

Agree .. 110%

[wmuser]

"If society didn't have lazy scum we wouldn't need locks."

And more responsive,agree..

[lawman]

I don't practice this kind of law, but I think the word "bailment" fits, perhaps making the data warehouse civilly liable.