Capital One and many others victims of the data breach, reports say
Since Capital One’s major data breach, several other companies have reportedly had their own security disruptions.
Vodafone, Ford, Michigan State University and the Ohio Department of Transportation were also hit in the same data breach, according to CyberInt, an Israeli security firm, in which alleged hacker Paige Thompson stole 106 million credit applications and files stolen from a cloud server run by Capital One, the Seattle resident was taken into FBI custody earlier this week.
Private Slack messages leaked from the alleged hacker suggested a similar story saying “one of the world’s biggest telecom providers, an Ohio government body, and a major U.S. university” were affected.
CyberInt published the same Slack messages in their report released Wednesday, which also named Apperian, Infoblox and Wakoopa as possible victims. The Justice Department suggested that as the number of victims affected goes up, Thompson’s charges are increasing. Currently, Thompson faces five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for the hack.
The Justice Department said Thompson may face additional charges, suggesting other companies may have been involved.
Ford is apparently investigating its involvement with the scandal, according to a Ford spokesperson, Monique Brentley. However, Vodafone’s Adam Liversage says they are “not aware” of any data compromised in the Capital One Hack. Michigan State University reported information security threats are an ongoing problem for the institution, but they cannot identify at this time if they are a victim of this particular incident.
About 100 million people in the U.S. and 6 million in Canada have been affected by the breach. The illegally accessed data, which was stored on servers rented from Amazon Web Services.
According to reports, Capital One was informed of the breach through a third-party who saw the hacker’s claims on a tech site linked to her GitHub account.
Capital One’s breach is only one of a handful of major hacks this year including Facebook, Quest Diagnostics, and Bulgaria’s Revenue Service. During these breaches, hackers gain access to users’ highly-sensitive information such as social security numbers, insurance numbers, and personal details.
Growing concern for privacy protection also begs questions of invasive surveillance. However, experts suggest preventing attacks with the newest technological defenses.
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“All levels of government should invest in upgrading security technologies to reasonable levels,” said Niam Yaraghi of the Center from Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institute, “Or else many more agencies will soon become victims of ransomware attacks in the future.”