Capital One Data Breach Affects 106 Million Consumers

Capital One Financial Corporation announced they experienced a data breach affecting 100 million Americans and approximately 6 million Canadians. Data was collected between March 12 and July 17 of this year.

In their dedicated data breach facts sheet, Capital One emphasizes that “no credit card account numbers or log-in credentials were compromised and over 99 percent of Social Security numbers were not compromised.” Compromised information included:

• Credit card application data from 2005 to 2019, including names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, email addresses and self-reported income
• Credit card consumer data, including credit limits, balances, payment history and credit scores
• Partial transaction data from 2016-2018, totaling 23 days
• Approximately 140,000 Social Security Numbers for consumer credit cardholders
• Approximately 80,000 linked bank account numbers for secured credit cardholders
• One million Social Insurance Numbers for Canadian cardholders

The perpetrator, Paige Thompson, has been arrested and now faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She is set for a hearing on August 1, 2019.

Capital One says they will offer free credit monitoring and identity protection to affected victims. They have also heightened their cybersecurity protocols. The incident is projected to cost the company up to $150 million.