By: Andrew Zhang

Last Friday, 36 year-old Paige Thompson was convicted of hacking Capital

One for her personal gain. This decision was because Thompson, a

Washington state resident, gained access to the personal information of millions

of Capital One customers.

A Seattle jury found Thompson guilty of violating the Computer Fraud and

Abuse Act, but innocent of identity theft and access device fraud. She was found

guilty of five counts of gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer and

damaging a protected computer, as well as guilty of wire fraud charges.

These charges didn’t come from thin air. In 2019, she downloaded the

personal info of over 100 million. Capital One users used the breach

to mine cryptocurrency.

Her lawyers tried to defend her, but to no avail. They argued that she was

using the same methods and technologies as good hackers, also known as white

hat hackers, and that she was going to report the vulnerabilities to Capital One.

But this was obviously a lie. “Ms. Thompson used her hacking skills to

steal the personal information of more than 100 million people, and hijacked

computer servers to mine cryptocurrency. Far from being an ethical hacker trying

to help companies with their computer security, she exploited mistakes to steal

valuable data and sought to enrich herself.” said Nicholas W. Brown, the U.S.

attorney for the Western District of Washington.

The blame wasn’t all on Ms. Thompson, though. Capital One agreed to pay

$80 million to regulators because it didn’t have the security measures in place

needed to protect its customers’ private information in 2020. It also agreed to pay

$190 million to the victims of the breach.

From the beginning, it was clear that nobody thought she was innocent.

“She wanted data, she wanted money, and she wanted to brag,” said Andrew

Friedman, an assistant U.S. attorney.

The case isn’t off the hook yet. Her sentencing date is set to be September

15 of this year.

Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/technology/paige-thompson-capital-one-hack.html