Capital One data breach affects 100 million in U.S. and 6 million in Canada.

On July 29, 2019, Capital One revealed that the personal details of 100 million users in the United States and six million users in Canada were exposed. The financial services firm informed the federal authorities immediately, leading to the alleged perpetrator, Paige Thompson of Seattle, being identified and arrested by the FBI.

What happened

On July 19, Capital One identified that an attacker exploited an existing vulnerability in the infrastructure and gained access to their system containing details of existing credit card customers and new applicants between March 22 and 23, 2019. The compromised information included names, addresses, phone numbers, postal codes, email addresses, birthdates, and self-reported income. Additionally, credit limits, credit scores, balances, and payment histories were also exposed, along with 140,000 Social Security numbers and 80,000 linked bank account numbers of customers. Fortunately, no credit card numbers or login details were stolen. 

“While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened,” Capital One chairman and CEO Richard Fairbank said in a statement. Capital One is offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services for the affected individuals.

If you want to prevent incidents like this, investing in a tool like EventLog Analyzer will alert you instantly of vulnerabilities in your system, so you can take the necessary steps to eliminate them.Download a 30-day free trial of EventLog Analyzer, today.