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Woman convicted in massive Capital One hack – Hartford Courant


A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Seattle tech worker of several charges related to a massive hack of Capital One bank and other companies in 2019.

Paige Thompson, 36, a former Amazon software engineer who used the online handle “erratic,” obtained the personal information of more than 100 million people — a data breach that prompted Capital One to reach a tentative $190 million settlement with affected customers. The Treasury Department also fined the company $80 million for failing to protect the data.

Following a seven-day trial, the Seattle jury found her guilty of wire fraud, unauthorized access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. The jury acquitted her of other charges, including access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Thompson’s attorneys argued that she struggled with mental health issues, never intended to profit from the data she obtained, and said in court papers “there is no credible or direct evidence that a single person’s identity was misused.”

Federal prosecutors said she didn’t just steal the data, but also planted software on servers she unlawfully accessed to steal computing power to mine cryptocurrency.

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“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,” Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a news release.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while the other charges can bring a five-year maximum. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik is scheduled to sentence Thompson in September.

In interviews with The Associated Press following her arrest, friends and associates described Thompson as a skilled programmer and software architect whose career and behavior — oversharing in chat groups, frequent profanity, expressions of gender-identity distress and emotional ups and downs — mirrored her online handle.

At one point, two former roommates obtained a protection order against her, saying she had been stalking and harassing them.

Thompson joined Amazon in 2015 to work at Amazon Web…

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State’s Computer Security Requires Vigilant Defense – Hartford Courant


Hartford Courant

State's Computer Security Requires Vigilant Defense
Hartford Courant
If cybersecurity concerns are not on a list of urgent issues that Connecticut residents and legislators are thinking about, they should be. Hackers are constantly writing computer viruses and other forms of malware with the goals of disrupting our

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Report: Iran’s feared paramilitary group has launched cyber attack on ‘enemies’ of state – Hartford Courant

Iran has been seeking to master the digital world as a crucial step to prepare for what it calls “soft war,” which includes fighting against cyber attacks such as the Stuxnet computer worm that Iran said was aimed at sabotaging its uranium enrichment program.
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Beware Amazon.com phishing scams – Hartford Courant

Many of us have fished around the http://www.amazon.com website looking for a deal. The website now is warning customers that identify thieves are using its name to phish for access to your account so they can buy things on your dime. According to a recent rep
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