In the recent news, personal data of around 106 million people were stolen in a data breach that affected the financial services provider firm, Capital One. The alleged hacker was arrested on Monday after boasting about the breach on social media.
The hacker’s name is Paige Thompson. Capital One in a report said that the data stolen from them included names, addresses, and phone numbers of people who were using their products. The information about the credit card accounts was not accessible to them. This is considered as one of the largest data breach in the history of banking.
How many people were affected?
Being a primary provider of credit card services in the US Capital One lost it big with this data breach. The firm gave a statement saying that about 100 million people from the US and 6 million people from Canada got affected by this breach. They further added that about 1,40,000 social security numbers and around 80,000 linked bank accounts were also compromised during this breach in the US.
The hack was identified on the 19th of July, and Capital One said that the hacker was able to figure out a loophole in the configuration of the company’s infrastructure. To compensate for the loss, Capital One has decided to inform the people who were affected by the breach and has decided to provide them with free credit monitoring and identity protection.
The US justice department has confirmed the arrest of Ms. Thompson, 33, on Monday, and she has made an appearance in federal court in Seattle. The hearing is scheduled for the 1st of August. This theft came into notice when a user noticed the post that Thompson had posted on GitHub after the theft. The user informed Capital One about the possible data theft. Ms. Thompson can face a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
