Info of 106 mn people in US, Canada stolen
BENGALURU: Capital One Financial Corp has said that personal information including names and addresses of about 100 million individuals in the US and 6 million people in Canada were obtained by a hacker who has been arrested.
The suspect, a 33-year-old former Seattle technology company software engineer identified as Paige Thompson, made her initial appearance in US District Court in Seattle on Monday, the US Attorney’s office said. According to a complaint filed in the District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, Thompson posted information from her hack, which occurred between March 12 and July 17, on coding platform Github. Another user saw the post and notified Capital One of the breach.
Law enforcement officials were able to track Thompson down as the page she posted on contained her full name as part of its digital address, the complaint said. Capital One said it identified the hack on July 19. A representative for the US Attorney’s office said it was not immediately clear what the suspect’s motive was. The incident is expected to cost between $100 mn and $150 mn in 2019, mainly because of customer notifications, credit monitoring and legal support, Capital One said. The hacker did not gain access to credit card account numbers, but about 140,000 Social Security numbers and 80,000 linked bank account numbers were compromised, Capital One said.