Did you hear about the huge data breach that is said to affect as many as 100 million US Capital One customers? That breach was allegedly caused by a woman in Seattle.

A Seattle hacker who goes by the name "erratic" was arrested and charged in a U.S. District court Monday for hacking Capital One credit applications, the AP reports.

Paige A. Thompson allegedly gained access to credit scores, bank balances and Social Security numbers for about 140,000 Capital One customers, and then distributed those online. The bank believes the breach could affect as many as 100 million people in the U.S. and 6 million more in Canada, although they are not sure if any of the information has yet been used for fraud.

The FBI found evidence related to the Capital One breach, as well as "other entities that may have been targets of attempted or actual network intrusions,” when they raided Thompson's residence and seized her devices.

Capital One said it will provide free credit monitoring to affected customers.

The worst part of these things is you really never know when someone might be trying to steal your identity! After I had some sort of hack while in Spain earlier this month and my Netflix, IG, Hulu and Spotify were all hacked, I am concerned that my banking info may have been compromised as well. You really don't know what's happening outside of just checking your accounts continually and hoping for the best.

Free credit monitoring or not, this sucks for anyone involved.

 

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