Capital One hacker suspected to have breached other 30 companies

Pierluigi Paganini August 18, 2019

Federal prosecutors revealed that Paige Thompson, who was arrested after the Capital One data breach, may have hacked more than 30 other organizations.

In July, Capital One, one of the largest U.S. –card issuer and financial corporation suffered a data breach that exposed personal information from 106 million Capital One credit applications.

A hacker that goes online with the handle “erratic” breached the systems at Capital One and gained access to the huge trove of personal information.

Law enforcement identified and arrested the hacker, the DoJ announced that Paige A. Thompson (33) was suspected to be responsible for the data breach.

“A former Seattle technology company software engineer was arrested today on a criminal complaint charging computer fraud and abuse for an intrusion on the stored data of Capital One Financial Corporation, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran.” reads the press release published by the DoJ. “PAIGE A. THOMPSON a/k/a erratic, 33, made her initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Seattle today and was ordered detained pending a hearing on August 1, 2019.”

capital one

Law enforcement was not able to demonstrate that data was sold or distributed to other hackers.

Now the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle confirmed that servers seized during the searches at Thompson’s house contained data stolen from more than 30 unnamed other entities.

“In a memorandum filed ahead of a detention hearing, rescheduled from Thursday to Aug. 22, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said servers found in Thompson’s bedroom contained data stolen from more than 30 unnamed companies, educational institutions and other entities.” reported the AP agency.

According to prosecutors, the vast majority of that data did not contain personal identifying information. The investigation is still ongoing and aims at identifying the affected organizations.

Thompson’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Capita One, hacking)

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