A Florida man was sentenced to eight years in federal prison Wednesday after being found guilty on Aug. 12 of stealing more than 1 billion records from Acxiom Corp.
Scott Levine, formerly a principal of Boca-Raton, FL-based Snipermail, was reportedly led out of court in handcuffs after the sentencing.
Levine used sophisticated decryption software to illegally obtain passwords and exceed his authorized access to Acxiom’s databases, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The government claims the stolen data was worth about $58 million; Levine’s lawyer said it was worth about $50,000, according to reports.
There is no evidence that the data was used for identity theft or fraud, according to law enforcement officials. However, they said, some of the data was resold to a broker for use in a marketing campaign.
“We would like to express our deepest thanks and gratitude to the jury as well as to The Honorable Bill Wilson, U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins and his staff, the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service,” Acxiom said in a statement. “There is no evidence that any individuals were put at risk of harm due to the breaches. It is also important to note that only one external server was accessed and there was no intrusion of Acxiom’s internal security firewalls or internal databases.”
The company said it has also beefed up its security systems since the theft took place.
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