Because he's charged with selling the AOL group's customer list to senders of "spam" e-mail. That's a pretty stiff sentence - and that's not a joke either.

In what is believed to be one of the first cases under new anti-spam legislation, federal agents arrested the 24-year-old computer engineer and his 21-year-old associate, on charges of conspiring to steal AOL's customer list and selling it to the spammer.

Under the new CAN-SPAM law, sending spam is a now a federal offence in the US. If convicted, the pair will both face a maximum sentence of five years and fines of $250,000.

Even though AOL's customer's more intimate details are thought not to have been breached - as they were stored a separate server - the case highlights both the growing intent to nail email spam and the problems associated with security of data and breach of trust.

According to the charges, which were filed on Wednesday, the AOL engineer used another employees' credentials to steal the list of screen names from AOL's main database.

He allegedly then conspired to sell the list to the spammer, a well known internet abuser, for $52,000. The same spamming company later bought another, updated list for $32,000.

AOL claimed it learned of the theft this year after it took legal action against a large-scale spammer who had been bombarding users with e-mails. That triggered the investigation which led to the arrests.

AOL also fired the employee, who had worked at AOL for about five years, as well as apologised to customers while promising a review of internal procedures.

The moral of the story is that clients and employees need to be as vigilant internally as they do externally and to keep systems and procedures as securely maintained as possible.

The Quantos Consultancy is fully involved in designing and maintaining database systems to the highest level possible and can advise on legal procedures and actions via legal associate Tony Morris.

For any further information about database security please call either Colin Hiom or Robert Iles on 01367 820 828.