A Florida man was on Friday convicted of stealing around 1.6 billion items of personal information from a computer database belonging to information management firm Acxiom Corporation, according to the Associated Press.

The data theft is thought to be one of the largest ever.

Scott Levine, 45, of Boca Raton, Florida, ran Snipermail.com, an email marketing company. He was indicted in July last year on 144 counts that included conspiracy, access device fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice, after investigators traced an intrusion into Acxiom’s database back to his firm’s computer system.

Further investigation suggested that, beginning in April 2002, individuals employed at Snipermail had obtained access to Acxiom's databases, and by spring 2003, started regularly accessing large data files and downloading them.

According to reports, Levine was found guilty on 120 counts of accessing data without authorisation – for which he faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine per count.

He was also convicted on two counts of access device fraud, each of which brings a maximum sentence of 10 years prison and a $250,000 fine, and one count of obstruction of justice, which could earn him 20 years in prison and another $250,000 fine.

Levine was acquitted of charges relating to money laundering and conspiracy.

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