The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently announced it is filing charges against a hacker – Paige Thompson – who allegedly hacked into Capital One’s private servers to steal information from accounts and applications. Capital One collaborated with the DOJ and admitted to the massive data breach, which apparently occurred back in March 2019. The announcement was only recently made to the public because Thompson was arrested this past Monday.
According to official statements from Capital One and investigators, the following was compromised in the hack:
- 140,000 Social Security numbers
- 1 million Canadian Social Insurance numbers
- 80,000 bank account numbers
It is believed that a total of 100 million accounts and applications were accessed or stolen by Thompson, who is a professional software engineer. Information in the accessed accounts could include any amount of confidential information, such as names, home addresses, bank account balances, and so on. Some of credit card applications that were accessed through the data breach had reportedly been on file since 2005.
Capital One claims that Thompson was unable to actually log into any accounts due to the information she stole in the data breach. It also has announced it will provide identity protection services for free to inquiring Capital One customers.
(For more information about the Capital One data breach, you can click here to view a full CNN Business article.)
What Can You Do If Your Capital One Account was Hacked?
Companies like Capital One have an unshakable duty to protect and preserve the confidential information they collect from clients. Although Thompson is the criminal who allegedly stole the data from Capital One, the financial institution is the party that was negligent in how it handled and secured the data. Investigators claimed Thompson was able to exploit a faulty firewall on the Capital One server, which indicates the company was not atop its cybersecurity. In recent years, massive data breaches have been in headlines, so it is impossible to reason that Capital One was not aware of the real dangers hackers pose.
If you are a Capital One customer and you are notified that your information was accessed or stolen in this data breach, then you can take legal action to set things right. Golomb Legal, P.C. and our Capital One data beach attorneys in Philadelphia are working with people just like you who have been compromised due to Capital One’s professional negligence. It may be possible to sue for a consumer class action against Capital One, in which we seek fair compensation for all who were affected.
What Is The Latest In The Capital One Lawsuit?
Golomb Legal, P.C. is looking for strong plaintiff candidates to serve as Class Representatives in the ongoing class action litigation. If you are an individual that has:
- Experienced identity theft attributable to the breach,
- Received a notice(s) from Capital One that their information was compromised or from credit monitoring services (for example, CreditWise or other services), or
- Suffered out-of-pocket damages, including fraud losses, money to freeze your credit, or if you paid Capital One for services or fees
Please contact the lawyers at Golomb Legal today. The lawyers at Golomb Legal are experienced at bringing class action lawsuits against corporations accused of breaching personal and financial information.
To see if you can join the forming class action against Capital One for its massive data breach, call us at (215) 278-4449 and arrange a free consultation today.