Capital One’s Data Breach Affects 6 Million Canadians

Capital One’s data breach has reportedly affected around 6 million Canadians whom the credit card provider will be contacting soon.

Capital One was reportedly informed of the data breach by a third party in mid-July. Soon afterward, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began tracking the alleged perpetrator – a hacker named Paige Thompson.

Thompson reportedly worked as a systems engineer for Amazon Web Services between 2015 and 2016. Following the FBI’s investigation, Thompson has been charged with computer fraud and abuse in district court.

“While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened,” said Capital One CEO Richard Fairbank in a statement. “I sincerely apologize for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected and I am committed to making it right.”

According to the CBC, the data breach at Capital One affected around 100 million people in the United States and an additional 6 million people in Canada. These Canadian citizens may have had their social insurance numbers compromised by the breach. Other compromised information may include credit card application data, contact information, credit scores, as well as credit card limits, balances, and transaction histories.

What Canadian Account Holders Can Do

If Canadians had their social insurance numbers compromised in Capital One’s data breach, it may be difficult to get a new one. With compromised personal information, consumers are often forced to employ credit monitoring services to watch for fraudulent behavior.

In America, citizens can put a “credit freeze” on their account which allows a credit reporting file to be viewed only by creditors of current accounts, certain government agencies, and companies that are monitoring a credit report at the request of the consumer.

However, Canada’s regulations do not allow for credit freezes, meaning that citizens will have to take a more passive approach. In addition to private credit monitoring services, Canadians may also be able to set up fraud alerts with the country’s credit bureaus, TransUnion Canada and Equifax Canada.

TransUnion recently told Global News that individuals with compromised social insurance numbers due to the Capital One breach may have more options available to them.

“If fraudulent activity has occurred, consumers can request an investigation into any inaccurate information on their TransUnion credit file,” TransUnion told Global News.

“They can also request their SIN be placed in TransUnion’s High-Risk Fraud Alert database. If a consumer registers for a High-Risk Fraud Alert for their SIN, then a lender who subscribes for that service will receive an alert if the SIN is used in conjunction with a request for credit.”

According to CTV News, Capital One is working with Canadian authorities, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, to “protect affected individuals”.  The privacy commissioner has reportedly launched an investigation into Capital One’s data breach and has urged Canadians to be careful about giving out their sensitive information to people masquerading as Capital One over the phone.

Capital One will reportedly be contacting affected consumers soon and offers for free credit monitoring may be available. However, until more information is released by the credit card company, waiting and preemptive credit monitoring may be the only options.

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 qualify to join this Capital One data breach class action lawsuit investigation.

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