Fergie's Tech Blog

Just What Is Identity Theft?

Jennifer Bosavage writes in InternetWeek:

Poor Bernie Ebbers. The former chairman of WorldCom should have just hacked into the accounts of his employees and investors. Chances are he would have received a lighter sentence than the 25-year one he received on Wednesday; that is, if he'd ever been caught. The fraud he did perpetrate was a huge, intricate orchestration that bilked innocent people out of $11 billion. The public is, and should be, appalled by the arrogance of such a criminal. Let's hope that the prosecutors and the jurors take a similarly dim view of hacker Scott Levine.

If you don't know, Levine is the former CEO of Snipermail, who not incidentally, is accused of stealing information from Acxiom, one of the world's largest database companies. And it's not just a little information he swiped from Acxiom: It's 8.2 gigabytes worth. Things like names, home addresses, bank and credit card information and email addresses. In fact, he faces 144 counts on what could be one of the largest computer crimes to date.

Interestingly, Levine has not been charged with identity theft crimes but did sell the information to a marketing company. But follow me here: It's a bit tough to swallow that a count of identity theft could not be charged against him, if there is evidence he may have stolen information regarding people's identities. It seems the actual appropriating of the information is not at issue; it's what one does with the information after taking it. If one hacks into a database and steals your personal info, but does not, say, go on a cruise impersonating you, the thief may be charged with unauthorized access of a protected computer, conspiracy, access device fraud (as was Levine), but not with identity theft. (Which is, in my mind, the one thing it seems clear the thief did do.) That is crazy. If you hack into a database, that's a crime, just as surely as stealing someone else's information and selling it to someone else is. And it's of little concern what the sellers' or buyers' intentions may be.

posted by Fergie @ 7/15/2005 07:30:00 AM