The Denver Post

Data hack. Capital One says records exposed.

- By Gene Johnson

SEATTLE» A hacker gained access to personal informatio­n from more than 100 million Capital One credit applicatio­ns, the bank said Monday 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 U.S. District Court in Seattle. Thompson made an initial appearance in court and was ordered to remain in custody pending a detention hearing Thursday.

The hacker got 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 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 immediatel­y return an email seeking comment.

Capitol One, based in McLean, Va., said Monday it found out about the vulnerabil­ity in its system July 19 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 webhosting site GitHub.

And a month before that, the FBI said, a Twitter user who went by “erratic” sent Capitol One direct messages warning about distributi­ng the bank’s data, including names, birthdates and Social Security numbers.

“Ive basically strapped myself with a bomb vest, (expletive) dropping capitol ones dox and admitting it,” one said. “I wanna distribute those buckets i think first.”

Capital One said it believes it is unlikely that the informatio­n was used for fraud, but it will continue to investigat­e. The data breach affected about 100 million people in the U.S. and 6 million in Canada.

Capital One Financial Corp. is the nation’s seventh-largest commercial bank with $373.6 billion in assets as of June 30.

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