In one of the largest thefts of data from a bank, a former Amazon engineer hacked Capital One and was able to access personal data of over 100m people. Among the data that was accessed, she stole 140k U.S. Social Security numbers, 80k bank account numbers, and 1m Canadian social insurance numbers.
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Capital One database breached
Once alerted to the breach, the authorities found what they said were Ms. Thompson’s online boasts that she wanted to “distribute” the materials. On June 27, she also listed “several companies, government entities and educational institutions,” according to court papers, which investigators interpreted to be other hacks she “may have committed.” While the breach was possible because of a security lapse by Capital One, it was aided by Ms. Thompson’s expertise. Information posted on social media shows she worked at one time for Amazon, as an engineer for the same server business that court papers said Capital One was using.
