23 July
2006 Chatmag News.
William Bailey,
Jr, 46, of Charlotte, North Carolina, has been indicted by the U.S. Attorney's
office in Philadelphia with 11 counts of computer intrusion.
Bailey operates
dr-411.com, a web site that offers for sale various professional organization
member databases, including addresses and email addresses. One such example
is:
"Physician Email
Database
20,350 emails
for $399"
According to the
indictment:
"The indictment
charges that between January and May 2005, Bailey gained unauthorized access
to the computer at American College of Physicians and downloaded the membership
database.
The ACP web site
contained the following restriction on its use. A viewer had to read this
warning before getting access to the membership database:
"Member Connection" or any of its data or listings may not be downloaded,
republished, resold or duplicated, in whole or in part, for commercial
or any other purposes, or for purposes of compiling mailing lists or any
other lists of physicians. The use of "Member Connection" to establish
independent data files or compendiums of statistical information is prohibited..
. . Should the foregoing terms and conditions be acceptable to you, please
indicate your agreement and acceptance by clicking below on the button
labeled, "I accept."
"As the indictment
alleges, the defendant was not an ACP member, knew he couldn't gain access
to the database and download the information that he wanted, so he ignored
the stop signs and the law, said Meehan. Meehan also noted that the American
College of Physicians called the FBI immediately and cooperated during
the investigation.
If convicted,
Bailey faces a maximum possible sentence of 55 years imprisonment, $2,750,000
in fines and a special assessment of $1100.
The case was investigated
by the computer crimes squad of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It
has been assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Michael L. Levy."
In the war against
email spam, removing the sources of email lists is as vital as taking down
those who spam.
--Chatmag News
Staff--
External Link:
U.S.
Department of Justice.
