Capital One hacker suspected to have breached other 30 companies

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.”

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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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.