Hackers convicted of Capital One, other companies get 5 years

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Hackers convicted of Capital One, other companies get 5 years

A former Seattle tech worker who was convicted Tuesday of several counts related to a massive hack of Capital One bank and other companies in 2019 was sentenced Tuesday to time served and five years of probation.

U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said sentencing former Amazon software engineer Paige Thompson to prison would have been particularly difficult for her because of her mental health and transgender status.

Brown said in the statement that justice is not what it looks like.

In June of this year, a Seattle jury found her guilty of wire fraud, unauthorized access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. The jury acquitted her of various charges, including access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Thompson, 37, obtained the personal information of over 100 million people - a data breach that caused Capital One to reach a $190 million settlement with affected customers.

The Treasury Department fined the company $80 million for failing to protect the data.

Thompson's lawyers argued at trial 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 she also planted software on servers she was unlawfully accessed to steal computing power to mine criptocurrency.

Ms. Thompson s hacking and theft of information of 100 million people caused more than $250 million in damage to companies and individuals, Brown said. Millions of people are worried about their private information because of her cybercrimes. This conduct deserves more significant sanction. Thompson was arrested in July 2019 and remained in jail until November of that year, The Seattle Times reported. The amount of restitution Thompson will have to pay victims will be determined at a December hearing.