Beyza Binnur Donmez
July 30, 2019•Update: July 30, 2019
ANKARA
The U.S. bank Capital One announced that data of over 100 million U.S. citizens and 6 million Canadians had been stolen by a hacker.
The breach is likely to include credit card application data between 2005 and 2019, the bank said in a statement on Monday.
Through unauthorized access by an outside individual on July 19, nearly 140,000 U.S. social security numbers and about 80,000 bank account numbers were stolen.
The stolen credit card application data included names, addresses, postal codes, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth and income, as well as customer status -- credit scores, credit limits, balances and payment history-- said the statement.
Social insurance numbers of one million Canadians were also stolen in the incident.
"Capital One immediately fixed the configuration vulnerability that this individual exploited and promptly began working with federal law enforcement. The FBI has arrested the person responsible and that person is in custody" it said.
The U.S. Justice Department announced that the suspect was a former Seattle technology company software engineer who was arrested on criminal complaint of computer fraud and abuse.
The department identified the hacker as Paige A. Thompson, 33, using "erratic" as nickname. She is under custody, pending a hearing on August 1.
Capital One said it is unlikely that the stolen information was used for fraud or disseminated by the hacker, adding that the investigation will continue.
Noting that the bank "invested heavily in cybersecurity", the bank added: "We will incorporate the learnings from this incident to further strengthen our cyber defenses."
"While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened," said Richard D. Fairbank, bank's chairman and CEO.
"I sincerely apologize for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected and I am committed to making it right," Fairbank added.
