Capital One announced Monday that a data theft exposed personal information tied to about 100 million people in the United States and roughly 6 million in Canada, according to the company’s news release.
The FBI arrested a Seattle woman named Paige in connection with the breach. Authorities allege she took data from Capital One credit card applications, and USA Today described the incident as one of the largest data breaches ever. She has been charged, but the charge is an allegation and she had not been convicted at the time of this report.
Capital One said the largest category of information accessed came from people who applied for credit cards between 2005 and 2019. It included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth and self reported income. The company also said about 140,000 Social Security numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers belonging to credit card customers were accessed.
According to USA Today, Capital One discovered the breach on July 19. The company said it quickly fixed the configuration vulnerability involved and began working with federal law enforcement. It set up a consumer information page at capitalone.com/facts2019 for people with questions.
Chairman and CEO Richard Fairbank said he was grateful the person responsible had been caught, apologized to those affected and said the company is committed to making it right.
