Capital One Data Hack Draws Probe From NY Attorney General

NEW YORK — Call it a capital case. New York Attorney General Letitia James plans to investigate the Capital One data breach that affected millions of Americans, she said Tuesday.

The Democratic prosecutor said her office would immediately begin a probe of the hack that exposed the personal information of about 100 million of the credit card company's United States customers. State officials will also work to make sure New Yorkers caught up in the breach are given relief, James said.

"It is becoming far too commonplace that financial institutions are susceptible to hacks, begging the questions: Why do these breaches continue to take place? And are companies doing enough to prevent future data breaches?" James said in a statement.

Capital One disclosed late Monday that an outside hacker had stolen a cache of customer data spanning about 14 years. Federal prosecutors in Seattle have accused the tech worker Paige A. Thompson of perpetrating the breach and charged her with computer fraud and abuse.

The compromised data largely comprises information collected on credit card applications submitted from 2005 to early this year, such as names, email and mailing addresses, income and birth dates, Capital One said.

Some 140,000 Social Security numbers and about 80,000 bank account numbers were also stolen, according to the company.

While James's probe is just in its early stages, it will likely focus on consumer protections, how to prevent future breaches and how to give victims relief, a spokesperson in her office said. The office will likely work to ensure that Capital One had reasonable data security measures in place, promptly notified customers and helped them recoup any losses, according to the spokesperson.

News of the hack came a week after James and other attorneys general reached a settlement with Equifax over its massive 2017 breach that included $425 million in customer restitution and a $175 million payment to the 50 affected states and territories.

The latter amount includes about $9.2 million for New York, and the state's Department of Financial Services has separately slapped Equifax with another $10 million in fines, according to James's office.

Capital One has said that it would notify people affected by the breach and offer free identity protection and credit monitoring to all those involved.