Capital one data breach: how to protect your data

“Recent Capital One credit-card applicants should certainly be more worried than usual, and especially vigilant, following the company’s data breach,” he adds. More words of wisdom: Use

two-factor authentication to confirm your identity when signing onto financial websites. Importantly, never respond to unsolicited phone calls and emails requesting your personal

information. The Capital One Financial Corp., a bank holding company that also offers bank accounts, auto loans and other services, disclosed Monday that it learned July 19 that personal

information relating to its credit card customers and card applicants had been stolen. It said it fixed a vulnerability in its computer system and began working with the FBI, which has

arrested a suspect. Capital One, in a statement on its website, says it will notify affected consumers in a variety of ways and make free credit monitoring and identity protection available

to them. “While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened,” said Richard D. Fairbank, chairman and CEO of Capital One, headquartered in

McLean, Virginia, a Washington suburb. “I sincerely apologize for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected and I am committed to making it right.” The hacking

was blamed on Paige A. Thompson, 33, a Seattle-area woman who goes by the online alias of “erratic.” Thompson, a former software engineer for a Seattle tech company, was charged in federal

court on Monday. She is in custody and is slated to reappear in court in Seattle on Thursday. FBI agents executed a search warrant at her residence Monday and seized electronic storage

devices with copies of the filched data, the Department of Justice says. The hacking occurred over roughly four months ending on July 17, it says. Thompson made statements on social media

saying she had obtained the Capitol One data and “recognizes that she has acted illegally,” according to a criminal complaint charging her with computer fraud and abuse. She faces up to five

years in prison and a $250,000 fine.