140,000 customers’ bank details, including credit scores balance information, have been stolen by a hacker recently, the capital one bank said on Monday. Authorities have arrested one suspect, Paige A. Thompsons during investigations. He was charged with cyber fraud in the US district court in Seattle. Capital one had earlier notified the federal authorities about a suspected breach in July, since then the authorities were tracking Thompson’s cyber movements. Now he is under custody until his hearing on Thursday.
Capital one is one of the largest issuers of credit cards in the US, which is now facing the largest online security breach that has leaked almost 140,000 customers’ personal details. Thompson had sent a message on June 18, where he said, “I’ve basically strapped myself with a bomb vest, (expletive) dropping capital one’s dox and admitting it.” FBI agents have seized Thompson’s digital accessories. Reports claim that he was a system engineer at amazon web services till 2016. However, there is no evidence to claim amazon cloud service was involved in the breach.
The online breach has affected about 100 million customers in the US and another 6 million in Canada. The bank said on Monday that those customers whose credit cards were issued between 2005 and 2019 have been severely affected as the hacker had stolen their data, which consists of information about card numbers and balance info. The CEO of capital bank Richard D. Fairbank said: “ While I’m grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what happened.” Many major banks have improved security criteria and guidelines in recent years by secure chip-based credit cards. Credit card companies are now focusing on the fraud monitoring system to encounter high-profile data stealing.
