Capital One data breach affects more than 100 million customers

A massive data breach at Capital One Financial Corporation is impacting more than 100 million people in the U.S. and Canada, the company said in a press release.

That would make it one of the 10 largest data breaches ever, according to data from security and risk management watchdog CSO.

Capital One data breach: Who’s affected and what to do if you’re a victim

Capital One says in the release that “there was unauthorized access by an outside individual who obtained certain types of personal information relating to people who had applied for its credit card products and to Capital One credit card customers.”

Based on analysis by the company, that includes around 100 million people in the U.S. and 6 million in Canada.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington State said Monday that Paige A. Thompson, a 33-year-old former technology company software engineer, was arrested for the data theft.

Capital One said it is “unlikely that the information was used for fraud or disseminated by this individual,” but the investigation is ongoing.

According to Capital One, the majority of customers affected were consumers and small business owners who applied for the company’s credit cards between 2005 and early 2019.

“This information included personal information Capital One routinely collects at the time it receives credit card applications, including names, addresses, zip codes/postal codes, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, and self-reported income,” the company said.

Even more disturbing, the information accessed included 140,000 Social Security numbers of U.S. customers and 1 million Social Insurance numbers of Canadian customers, along with 80,000 linked bank accounts of secured credit card customers.

Capital One says it is alerting affected customers “through a variety of channels” and making free credit monitoring and identity protection available to those people.

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The company has set up a Frequently Asked Questions page regarding the incident here.

What to do if you were affected by the Capital One breach

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first massive breach of a financial services company in recent years and it almost certainly won’t be the last. Team Clark’s advice on what to do in these situations is multi-pronged:

With so many criminals out there eager to take advantage of people, there will be more data breaches in the future. But by taking these steps, you can at least protect yourself to some degree.

More stories you might enjoy from Clark.com:

Equifax data breach settlement: How to make a claim

Equifax says it will pay nearly $700 million for its role in a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of 148 million consumers.

When Equifax disclosed in September 2017 that hackers had exploited its website to steal consumer data, money expert Clark Howard was one of the most vocal proponents of reform. He also offered steps to take to protect yourself.

Equifax data breach settlement: How to claim your money

The agreement still has to be approved in court, but Equifax has set up a claims website at EquifaxBreachSettlement.com for consumers to use. File a claim online here.

If you are a class member, here’s what you’re entitled to:

In Money

In Services

• Up to $20,000, including:
• Up to 20 hours at $25 an hour for lost time
• Reimbursement of money spent buying credit/ID monitoring services
• Repayment for any costs associated with the data breach

• 10 years of free credit monitoring
• At least 7 years of free ID restoration services
• 6 free copies of your Equifax credit report beginning Dec. 31, 2019  and up to 7 years onward

If you don’t want to submit a claim electronically, you can download a claim form here, fill it out and mail it to:

Equifax Data Breach Settlement Administrator
c/o JND Legal Administration
P.O. Box 91318
Seattle, WA 98111-9418

You can also contact the settlement administrator to have a claim form mailed to you here.

If you choose to decline the free 10-year credit monitoring from Equifax, the agency says you can opt for a $125 cash payment instead. Clark says you should take the cash — not the credit monitoring.

Clark’s take: How do you prove identity theft via Equifax data breach?

As he looks back at the massive hack nearly two years ago, Clark says he has some key questions about the settlement:

“You’ll…be able to seek direct economic compensation from Equifax, but here’s the problem in the process: How do you prove that the identity theft problems you’re having are because of the Equifax data breach?”

“A lot of times there’s a lot of fuzziness, a lot of fog that surrounds identity theft,” he says. “I don’t know if you as an individual are going to be able to prove beyond hope that the actual data breach you’ve suffered is because of the Equifax data breach.”

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The Atlanta-based credit bureau says the $671 million settlement will resolve multiple federal and state investigations, including those by the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus, and attorneys general in 48 states.

More importantly, it could give millions of Americans a payoff for the stress and trouble the data breach caused.

Equifax also says it will fork over a quarter of the price consumers paid for credit and identity monitoring services up to a year before the data breach was announced.

As Clark always says: Freeze your credit

Clark says freezing your credit is the #1 way to protect your identity and financial information.

Before you freeze your credit, you should set up a way for you to monitor your credit. This is what he wants you to do:

Sign up for a Credit Karma or Credit Sesame account to get free credit monitoring and be notified when anyone tries to access your personal info. Here’s a step-by-step rundown of how to do it.

Ready to protect yourself? See Clark’s Credit Freeze Guide here!