Personal details of 106 million individuals across US and Canada stolen by hackers in epic Capital One data breach

The personal details of about 106 million individuals across the US and Canada were stolen in a hack targeting financial services firm Capital One, the company has revealed.  

The announcement came after the alleged hacker was arrested on Monday. According to Capital One, the data included names, addresses and phone numbers of people who applied for its credit card products, but the hacker did not gain access to credit card account numbers.

Capital One is a major credit card issuer in the US and also operates retail banks. The firm said in a statement released on Monday that the breach affected approximately 100 million individuals in the US and 6 million people in Canada.  

The statement added that about 140,000 social security numbers and 80,000 linked bank account numbers were compromised in the US. In Canada, about one million social insurance numbers belonging to Capital One credit card customers were also compromised.  

The hack was identified on 19 July. Capital One said the hacker was able to "exploit" a "configuration vulnerability" in the company's infrastructure. Aside from names and dates of birth, the hacker also managed to obtain credit scores, limits, balances, payment history and contact information.