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.<\/p>\n
The alleged hacker, Paige Thompson, was arrested on Monday after reportedly boasting about the breach online.<\/p>\n
Capital One said the data included names, addresses and phone numbers of people who applied for its products.<\/p>\n
But the hacker did not gain access to credit card account numbers, it said.<\/p>\n
The data breach is believed to be one of the largest in banking history.<\/p>\n
Capital One is a major credit card issuer in the US and also operates retail banks.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0firm said in a statement released on Monday<\/a>\u00a0that the breach affected approximately 100 million individuals in the US and 6 million people in Canada.<\/p>\n The statement added that about 140,000 social security numbers and 80,000 linked bank account numbers were compromised in the US.<\/p>\n In Canada, about one million social insurance numbers belonging to Capital One credit card customers were also compromised.<\/p>\n The hack was identified on 19 July.<\/p>\n Capital One said the hacker was able to “exploit” a “configuration vulnerability” in the company’s infrastructure.<\/p>\n Aside from names and dates of birth, the hacker also managed to obtain credit scores, limits, balances, payment history and contact information.<\/p>\n Capital One said it was unlikely the information was used for fraud but it would continue to investigate the breach.<\/p>\n The company will notify those affected and will provide them with free credit monitoring and identity protection.<\/p>\n Chairman Richard Fairbank said in a statement: “While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened.<\/p>\n “I sincerely apologise for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected and I am committed to making it right. ”<\/p>\n The US justice department has confirmed it has arrested a former Seattle technology company software engineer in connection with the breach.<\/p>\n Ms Thompson, 33, was arrested on Monday on charges of computer fraud and abuse. She made an initial appearance in federal court in Seattle.<\/p>\n A hearing has been scheduled for 1 August.<\/p>\n Court documents claim she boasted about the data breach on an online forum.<\/p>\n A statement by the US attorney’s office in Washington said: “On July 17 2019, a GitHub user who saw the post alerted Capital One to the possibility it had suffered a data theft.”<\/p>\n Ms Thompson faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 (\u00a3204,713) fine.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How has Capital One reacted?<\/h2>\n
What do we know about the alleged hacker?<\/h2>\n