Todd Bishop
Capital One, July 29, said a hacker stole personal data from more than 100 million customers. The US federal government has arrested suspects involved.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) searched the home of the suspect Paige A. Thompson on the 29th and seized digital equipment. The suspect was charged with a computer fraud and abuse and was brought to court in the Seattle District Court. He was also admitted to the detention hearing on August 1.
According to the bank, hackers’ data include credit scores and transaction records, as well as social security numbers of about 140,000 customers, affecting approximately 100 million US customers and 6 million Canadian customers. The bank will provide free credit monitoring services to affected customers and believe that the information is not used for fraudulent activities, but will continue to investigate.
The bank discovered the system vulnerabilities on July 19 and immediately sought assistance from law enforcement agencies. According to the FBI, two days before the incident, someone sent an email to the bank mentioning that Microsoft’s source code hosting company (GitHub) found leaked information.
