Capital One data breach: Arrest after details of 106m people stolen

LONDON - The personal details of about 106 million individuals across the US and Canada were stolen in a hack targeting financial services firm Capital One, the company has revealed.

The alleged hacker, Paige Thompson, was arrested on Monday after reportedly boasting about the breach online.

Capital One said the data included names, addresses and phone numbers of people who applied for its products.

But the hacker did not gain access to credit card account numbers, it said.

The data breach is believed to be one of the largest in banking history. Capital One is a major credit card issuer in the US and also operates retail banks.

The firm said in a statement released on Monday that the breach affected approximately 100 million individuals in the US and

Canada.

The statement added that about 140, 000 social security numbers and 80, 000 linked bank account numbers were compromised in the US.

In Canada, about one million social insurance numbers belonging to Capital One credit card customers were also compromised.

The hack was identified on July 19.

Capital One said the hacker was able to "exploit" a "configuration vulnerability" in the company's infrastructure.

Aside from names and dates of birth, the hacker also managed to obtain credit scores, limits, balances, payment history and contact information.

Capital One said it was unlikely the information was used for fraud but it would continue to investigate the breach. – six million people in