Vertical Markets

106 Individuals Impacted In Capital One Data Breach

by msecadm4921

A Capital One data breach resulted in the personal details of 106 million individuals being stolen across the United States and Canada.

What We Know

Capital One operates retail banks and is also a major credit card issuer. On Monday, the firm released a statement advising that the breach affected approximately 100 million individuals in the US and six million in Canada. The statement included that in the region of 140,000 social security numbers were compromised in the US along with approximately 80,000 linked bank account numbers. However, in Canada, approximately one million social security numbers, belonging to Capital One credit card customers, were compromised.

Capital One have said that the stolen personal data includes the names, addresses and phone numbers of people who have applied for their products and the hacker did not gain access to any of their credit card numbers.

The Hacker

Paige Thompson, former Seattle technology company software engineer, was arrested on charges of computer fraud and abuse, appeared in court on the 1st August. The courts advised that Ms Thompson gloated about the data breach online after a GitHub user saw her post on the 17th July which led them to alert Capital One. The hacker now faces a £204,713 ($250,000) fine and a maximum 5 years in prison. The breach is believed to be one of the biggest in banking history.

Capital One Investigation

Capital One have advised that it is unlikely the stole data was used for fraud, however, in order to be sure, they will be continuing to carry out a full investigation regarding the breach. If you are worried, Capital One have advised they will be notifying the individuals affected by email or mail over the next few weeks and will also be providing free credit monitoring and identity protection.

 

In a statement, Richard Fairbank said: “While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened. I sincerely apologise for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected and I am committed to making it right.”

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