Security News > 2022 > June > Former Amazon Employee Found Guilty in 2019 Capital One Data Breach

A 36-year-old former Amazon employee was convicted of wire fraud and computer intrusions in the U.S. for her role in the theft of personal data of no fewer than 100 million people in the 2019 Capital One breach.

Paige Thompson, who operated under the online alias "Erratic" and worked for the tech giant till 2016, was found guilty of wire fraud, five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer.

"Ms. Thompson used her hacking skills to steal the personal information of more than 100 million people, and hijacked computer servers to mine cryptocurrency," said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.

"Far from being an ethical hacker trying to help companies with their computer security, she exploited mistakes to steal valuable data and sought to enrich herself."

The incident, which came to light in July 2019, involved the defendant breaking into Amazon's cloud computing systems and stealing the personal information of roughly 100 million individuals in the U.S. and six million in Canada.

It was made possible by developing a custom tool to scan for misconfigured Amazon Web Services instances, allowing Thompson to siphon sensitive data belonging to over 30 entities, counting Capital One, and plant cryptocurrency mining software in the unlawfully accessed servers to illegally mint digital funds.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/06/former-amazon-employee-found-guilty-in.html