Capital One Canadian Cardholders May Choose Voluntary Data Protection Options

Capital One has announced that sensitive information regarding about six million Canadians was included in a data breach. Now Capital One Canadian cardholders affected by the recent data breach should expect an email or letter in the mail from the company.

The Canadian account holders and approximately 100 million U.S. customers were victims of the data breach, allegedly committed by a former Amazon web systems engineer, Paige Thompson.

he reportedly went on to post a description on GitHub explaining how she took advantage of a weakness in Capital One’s firewall system to illegally access the data. She allegedly accessed the names, addresses, phone numbers, linked bank accounts, U.S. Social Security numbers and the Canadian equivalent, known as social insurance numbers.

In the U.S., Americans can ask that a credit freeze be placed on their Social Security number, which means only creditors of current accounts, specific government agencies and companies that monitor the credit by request of the citizen are able to access the credit report. The credit freeze halts the approval of fraudulent requests for new credit under the person’s Social Security number.

Precautions for Capital One Canadian Cardholders

Canada’s financial system can’t accommodate credit freeze requests, but Capital One told CTVNews Canada that emails and letters to affected Canadians will include information on how they can receive two years of free credit monitoring – plus identity theft insurance – from TransUnion myTrueIdentity. Capital One is offering the service for free to those Canadians affected by the data breach.

Canadian citizens also have the option of placing their social insurance numbers in a High-Risk Fraud Alert database through TransUnion to help protect themselves from identity theft.

Although Thompson has been arrested, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada expressed it will pursue its own investigation into the massive data breach.

This breach is similar to the Equifax breach, which ended in a $380 million settlement for consumers. At least two lawsuits have been initiated over the Capital One data breach; one class action lawsuit has been filed in Ontario on behalf of many Capital One Canadian cardholders. Another class action lawsuit has been filed in Virginia on behalf of several U.S. victims.

Citizens in the U.S. and Canada should be wary of any phone calls from people alleging they are with Capital One.

Hacker May Have Breached Dozens of Other Databases

According to Gizmodo, court records filed Aug. 13 allege that Thompson stole “multiple terabytes of data” from perhaps more than 30 other organizations. The types of businesses and the extent of the data she may have accessed through the additionally discovered breaches are still under investigation.

The filing states that Thompson allegedly “intruded into servers operated, rented, or contracted by over 30 companies, educational institutions, and other entities.”

Thompson claims she never sold or shared any of the data, and the U.S. government has not found evidence that she did sell or share any of it.

According to the Gizmodo article, prosecutors believe she is not only a flight risk, but also is a possible danger to the community. She purportedly has threatened to kill other people, kill herself, and to commit suicide by cop. She allegedly threatened to “shoot up” a California tech company’s grounds.

Thompson purportedly lived with a 66-year-old roommate, who is being detained after police found he possessed a huge collection of guns and ammunition, which he was not allowed to possess due to his own prior felony convictions.

Join a Free Capital One Data Breach Lawsuit Investigation

If you applied for a Capital One credit card between 2005 and 2019 in the United States or Canada, you may may qualify to join this Capital One data breach class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.