Pierluigi Paganini August 26, 2019

A U.S. judge ordered Capital One hacker Paige Thompson to remain in custody pending trial because her “bizarre and erratic” behavior makes the woman at risk. 

The judge argued that she is a flight risk and poses a physical danger to herself and others.

“In today’s America, it is easy enough to obtain firearms, and there is every reason to be concerned that Thompson, who repeatedly has threatened to kill, would obtain the means to carry out … her threats – particularly when confronted with the alternative of near-certain conviction and imprisonment,” prosecutors said in their motion to keep the woman in custody.

Paige Thompson, a transgender woman, was charged of hacking Capital One, she will be under custody until her trial.

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.

Paige Thompson, 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.

Last week, Thompson’s lawyers explained that the jail is a threat to mental health and wellbeing of his client and asked that she is moved to a halfway house to give her the possibility to access to mental health care.

The judge believes that Thompson should remain detained, for the time being, the woman had already attempted to commit “suicide by cop.”

Prosecutors also argued that Thompson has a history of stalking and threatening to kill people. She has always shown aversion to the authorities and believes the police want to kill her.

Mountain View Police also declared that the woman has also threatened to shoot up an undisclosed company in May, at the time she was living with a convicted felon who had at his home an arsenal composed on several of pistols, rifles, and ammunition.

Prosecutors introduced as a new evidence a previously unseen message that Thompson had sent to a Bitcoin exchange employee in September 2018, in which the woman announced she would want to travel to Tijuana, Mexico to “do a little medical suicide tourism.”

Last week, 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.

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.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Capital One, hacking)

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