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Capital One hit with class action lawsuit after data breach

Capital One faces a class action lawsuit after a Seattle woman allegedly accessed personal information of more than 100 million credit applications.

SEATTLE — A class action lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Capital One after a data breach exposed personal information of more than 100 million people.

The suit, which was filed in a U.S. District court in Eastern Virginia, claims Capital One failed to safeguard customers’ personal information, including social security numbers, account balances, and bank account numbers.

It alleges the ramifications of the breach could be long-lasting, because once a customer’s personal information is stolen it could continue to be used fraudulently for years.

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Lead Plaintiff DuWayne Baird of Ohio headed the class action lawsuit with at least 100 members.

Capital One announced the breach Monday saying a hacker had gained access to information of 100 million people in the U.S. and 6 million in Canada.

A Seattle woman, Paige A. Thompson, 33, was arrested in connection to the hacking and faces one count of computer fraud and abuse. Authorities say Thompson, who agents believe goes by the screen name “erratic,” exploited a ‘misconfigured web application firewall’ to access Capital One data, before posting about it on the website GitHub.

RELATED: Seattle man arrested on gun charges alongside Capital One hacking suspect

Another GitHub user alerted Capital One of the post on July 17, and the company reported the intrusion to the FBI on July 19.

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