Arrest after US bank hack exposes more than 100m to fraud
A hacker gained access to personal information from more than 100 million Capital One credit applications, the bank said, as federal authorities arrested a suspect in the case.
Paige A Thompson, who also goes by the handle “erratic”, was charged with a single count of computer fraud and abuse in the US District Court in Seattle.
Thompson made an initial appearance in court and was ordered to remain in custody pending a detention hearing tomorrow. The hacker obtained information, including credit scores and balances plus the Social Security numbers of about 140,000 customers, the bank said. It will offer free credit monitoring services to those affected.
The FBI raided Thompson’s residence on Monday and seized digital devices. An initial search turned up files that referenced Capital One and “other entities that may have been targets of attempted or actual network intrusions”.
A public defender appointed to represent Thompson did not answer a request for comment. Capital One, based in Mclean, Virginia, said it found out about the vulnerability in its system on 19 July and immediately sought help from law enforcement to catch the perpetrator.
According to the FBI complaint, someone emailed the bank two days before that, notifying it that leaked data had appeared on the codehosting site Github, which is owned by Microsoft. And a month before that, the FBI said, a Twitter user who went by the name “erratic” sent another user direct messages warning about distributing the bank’s data, including names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. That user later reported the message to Capital One.
“I’ve basically strapped myself with a bomb vest, (expletive) dropping capitol ones dox and admitting it,” one read. “I wanna distribute those buckets i think first.”
Capital One said it believed it was unlikely the information was used for fraud, but it would continue to investigate. The data breach affected about 100 million people in the US and six million in Canada.
The bank said the bulk of the hacked data consisted of information supplied by consumers and small businesses who applied for credit cards between 2005 and early 2019. In addition to data such as phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth and self-reported income, the hacker was also able to access credit scores, credit limits and balances, as well as fragments of transaction information from a total of 23 days in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Capital One chief executive Richard Fairbank said: “While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened.”