Data Breach Triggers Capital One Class Action Lawsuit

A Capital One class action lawsuit was filed on Aug. 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The Capital One class action lawsuit was purportedly triggered by a massive data breach estimated to have compromised the personal information of 106 million people residing in the U.S. and Canada, according to CNN.

The Capital One Class Action Lawsuit

According to the lawsuit filed against the banking giant, the Capital One data breach was not announced until July 2019, even though 100 million U.S. citizens had their personally identifiable information (PII) exposed for four months. The type of information compromised included social security numbers, full names, addresses, dates of birth, zip codes, credit scores, and linked credit card information.

Capital One allegedly made claims when requesting PII in conjunction with the creation of bank accounts and evaluation of credit card applications that disclosure wouldn’t occur and best practices would be employed at all times to ensure prevention of a leak. With that in mind, the four initiating plaintiffs—who seek to represent a nationwide Class with state sub-classes in all 50 states—allege the bank breached their contract.

The failure to disclose the hack in a punctual fashion has also given rise to counts of Negligence and Negligence Per Se. Finally, the lawsuit claims Capital One is guilty of Unjust Enrichment by gaining financial benefit at the expense of customer’s trust in their claims of data protection.

The complainants and counsel are seeking class certification, injunctive relief, monetary damage and interest, and treble and punitive damages pursuant to federal and state consumer protection laws.

A Hacker’s Trail

The U.S. Justice Department is blaming the Capital One data breach on Paige Thompson, a former software engineer for Amazon Web Services in Seattle. Capital One had been utilizing Amazon’s cloud hosting services for some time at the time of the incident.

The compromise of the bank’s secure information occurred on March 22 and 23, 2019, and seems to include information from credit card applications that are dated as far back as 14 years.

Thompson allegedly boasted about her successful efforts to break into sensitive Capital One information, according to an article posted on July 29, 2019, by The New York Times. She allegedly used the handle “erratic” on Twitter and Slack messaging services where she purportedly also posted an invoice from a veterinarian trip for her cat which had her clear identity revealed.

The hacker was also an organizer of an online Meetup group, where people with similar interests can arrange social get-togethers in the wider community. This Meetup group was centered around those with an interest in “programming, hacking, and cracking,” according to the report.

Thompson was arrested in Seattle. The former Amazon software engineer was charged with one count of computer fraud and abuse.

The Capital One Lawsuit is Case No. 1:19-cv-04507 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

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.

Learn More

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