Capital One Breach Affects Millions
The information of 100 million-plus individuals has been compromised because of a Capital One data breach.
The credit card company announced yesterday that a hacker gained access to the personal information of millions of its customers and applicants. As explained by USA Today, information exposed includes customer names, addresses, transaction data, social security numbers, bank accounts, and credit scores.
This was all done by one individual: former software engineer Paige A. Thompson. The 33-year old was charged with computer fraud and abuse.
A press release from the Department of Justice explains that “Thompson posted on the information sharing site GitHub about her theft of information from the server storing Capital One data. The intrusion occurred through a misconfigured web application firewall that enabled access to the data.”
“A Github user who saw the post alerted Capital One to the possibility it had suffered a data theft. After determining on July 19, 2019, that there had been an intrusion into its data, Capital One contacted the FBI.”
The press release states that computer fraud is punishable by up to five years in prison, and a fine up to $250,000.
The case is being investigated by the FBI.
