Capital One to Pay $190M Settlement After Hacker Stole Data From Millions Of Consumers

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Capital One Data Breach Class Action Settlement:

• Who: Customers whose data was stolen in a 2019 hack of Capital One systems have reached a $190 million settlement with the bank.
• Why: The customers alleged that Capital One had been negligent with the storage of their sensitive private information.
• Where: The settlement will benefit a nationwide class of customers.

Capital One has inked a deal to pay $190 million to compensate tens of millions of customers whose personal data was stolen by a hacker in 2019.

If approved, the settlement will go to about 98 million customers who were affected by the breach, which was one of the largest data thefts from a bank, the New York Times reports. 

The settlement releases Capital One and its cloud services provider, Amazon Web Services, from claims the pair were negligent with customer data. The pair deny liability for the breach, reportedly saying they were settling “in the interest of avoiding the time, expense and uncertainty of continued litigation.”

The nationwide class action lawsuit was initially filed in a Virginia federal court in March 2021, alleging the breach exposed the personal information of more than 106 million individuals in the United States and Canada.  

Lead plaintiffs Brandi Edmondson, Brandon Hausauer, Sara Sharp and Gary Ziekicke say that the Capital One data breach exposed the personal and financial information of small businesses and individuals who applied for credit card products between 2005 and 2019.  

Stolen information allegedly included Social Security Numbers, bank accounts, credit scores and other financial information, along with names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and email addresses.

In addition to Capital One, the plaintiffs also named Amazon and its subsidiaries as defendants responsible for the exposure. 

Rogue Amazon Employee Exposed Sensitive Personal Customer Information For Months, Class Action Says

A rogue Amazon employee exposed sensitive personal customer information for months, the class action said. The plaintiffs said Amazon’s bad data protection policies failed to detect or stop the hack that now affects hundreds of millions of everyday consumers.  

Neither Capital One nor Amazon detected the data breach, regarded as one of the largest incidents of data theft, for months despite the fact that the rogue employee publicly posted about their hacking accomplishment on social media sites, the class action lawsuit claimed.  

This was not the first class action lawsuit to be filed over the Capital One data breach. Shortly after the breach was announced, a lawsuit was filed in New York federal court. In addition, several class actions have been filed in Canada over the hack.  

Last year, the bank agreed to pay $80 million to settle regulators’ claims that it lacked proper cybersecurity procedures as it began to use cloud storage technology. Capital One has set aside funds for the settlement and is investing in its cybersecurity program under new leadership, it said in a statement.

Was your personal or financial information compromised in the Capital One data breach? We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.  

The lead plaintiffs are represented by Steven T. Webster of Webster Book LLP, Norman E. Siegal of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP, Karen Hanson Riebel of Lockridge Grindal Nauen, PLLP and John A. Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group.  

The Capital One Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Edmonson et al. V. Capital One Financial Corporation, et al., Case No. 1:21-cv-00332, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

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