Capital One Data Breach – What To Do If You’re Impacted

Capital One, Who’s in Your Wallet?

Announced Monday, July 29, 2019, a Capital One Data Breach puts 106 million consumers at risk. The credit card company released a statement citing “unauthorized access by an outside individual” that occurred in March of 2019, as the cause of data breach. The breach puts consumers at risk who applied for a credit card with Capital One and their existing customers. The company approximates that 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians’ information was exposed. Small businesses and individuals were victims in the Capital One data breach with information disclosed including name, address, date of birth, email address, credit scores, credit limits, payment history, and balances. Roughly 80 thousand linked bank account numbers of credit card customers were also exposed. Capital One reports that no credit card information was compromised. They also say 99 percent of Social Security numbers (Social Insurance numbers for Canadians) were not exposed, although 1 percent of 106 million is still 1.06 million affected consumers between the U.S. and Canada.

• Take Action Now If you are a victim of the Capital One data breach, the company has announced it will “notify you through multiple channels.” Lacking specifics, Identity Theft Resource Center suggests taking a proactive approach if you think you could be a victim of the breach.
• Freeze Your Credit This includes steps like freezing your credit report and checking financial statements. Try logging onto your account to see if there are notifications regarding the breach waiting for you.
• Be Aware of Scams Also, be wary of anyone calling in regards to the breach and asking to collect personal information. Capital One is not notifying victims via phone and asking for Social Security numbers or financial information, if someone contacts you in this regard it is a scam.
• Document Your Steps Also, start documenting your activities utilizing the ITRC’s ID Theft Help App – that way if you need to provide the documentation on what you’ve done in the future, you have recorded the time and effort you’ve spent. While there is no proof that the compromised information has been used to commit identity theft or fraud, there is no time limit on identity crime. Millions of user information has been exposed, and there is no taking it back from the hacker or the places she chose to distribute it. The victims of the Capital One data breach will be offered credit monitoring and “identity protection” at no-cost, but the company does not offer details on the length or terms of these services. The credit card company says the data breach was allowed by a configuration vulnerability and they have since fixed the issue. Capital One also worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the alleged hacker has been arrested, an unusual event compared to most data breach cases.
• Sign Up For Identity Theft and Data Breach News Sign up for the In The Loop to stay in the know about potential threats to your identity/privacy and tips to keep you safe. Our monthly breach alert keeps you posted on the latest trends and activity in the world of breaches.
• Free Identity Theft Assistance Contact the Identity Theft Resource Center for toll-free, no-cost assistance at 888.400.5530. For on-the-go assistance, check out the free ID Theft Help App from ITRC. This news is currently evolving and we will update as announcements are made available.

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