By: Cecilia Zhang
A former Amazon engineer who was accused of stealing customers’ personal information from Capital One was found guilty of wire fraud and hacking charges on Friday.
Paige Thompson, a 36 year old woman violated an anti-hacking law Was found to have violated known as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by a judge in Seattle. In 2019 Paige Thompson stole personal information from more than 100 million Capital One customers. She also used her access to the Capitol One servers to mine cryptocurrency.
“She wanted data, she wanted money, and she wanted to brag.” Andrew Friedman, an assistant US attorney said in closing arguments.
“Ms. Thompson used her hacking skills to steal the personal information of more than 100 million people, and hijacked computer servers to mine cryptocurrency,” said Nicholas W. Brown, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, in a statement. “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.”