Hackers in the court
Date: August 11, 2005Source: smh.com.au
Scott Levine, former chief executive of the bulk email firm Snipermail.com, based in Boca Raton, Florida, faces 144 counts from a July 2004 indictment in what prosecutors described as one of the largest computer crime cases ever.
Levine is accused of stealing 8.2 gigabytes of information from Little Rock-based Acxiom, one of the world's largest database companies. The violations occurred from around April 2002 to August 2003.
The 1.6 billion records included 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.
In a four-week trial filled with high-tech testimony, both sides tried to simplify their arguments through symbolism.
Defence lawyer David Garvin pleaded Levine's innocence using an oft-quoted parable about a child saving starfish sent ashore to die by the uncontrollable tide. Prosecutor Karen Goldman countered with her own analogy.
"Scott Levine's username was Snipermail13 - why was 13 chosen? Because that was the number of Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino," Goldman said. "And just like a quarterback leads the team, Scott Levine led the crime."
Like Goldman, Garvin attached significance to the computer name used by Levine's brother-in-law Mike Castro, one of the six Snipermail employees who pleaded guilty to acting as Levine's co-conspirators in exchange for their testimony against Levine. Castro's username was Snipermail007.
Garvin said Castro thought of himself as a secret agent, a computer James Bond who could use his technical knwoledge to frame Levine, a boss who once was so ill-at-ease with computers that he had to write out his emails by hand.
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