Girl concerned in Capital One hack that pressured the corporate to pay $190 in settlement cash sentenced to probation and time served

A former Seattle tech employee convicted of a number of prices associated to an enormous hack of Capital One financial institution and different firms in 2019 was sentenced Tuesday to time served and 5 years of probation.

U.S. District Decide Robert S. Lasnik mentioned sentencing former Amazon software program engineer Paige Thompson to time in jail would have been significantly troublesome on her “due to her psychological well being and transgender standing,” the Division of Justice mentioned in a press release.

U.S. Legal professional Nick Brown mentioned his workplace was “very dissatisfied” with the sentencing determination, including prosecutors had requested for Thompson to serve seven years in jail.

“This isn’t what justice appears to be like like,” Brown mentioned within the assertion.

In June, a Seattle jury discovered her responsible of wire fraud, unauthorized entry to a protected pc and damaging a protected pc. The jury acquitted her of different prices, together with entry system fraud and aggravated id theft.

Thompson, 37, obtained the private info of over 100 million individuals—a knowledge breach that prompted Capital One to achieve a $190 million settlement with affected prospects.

The Treasury Division fined the corporate $80 million for failing to guard the information. Thompson’s attorneys argued at trial that she struggled with psychological well being points, by no means supposed to revenue from the information she obtained, and mentioned in courtroom papers “there isn’t a credible or direct proof {that a} single particular person’s id was misused.”

Federal prosecutors mentioned she didn’t simply steal the information, but in addition planted software program on servers she unlawfully accessed to steal computing energy to mine cryptocurrency.

“Ms. Thompson’s hacking and theft of data of 100 million individuals did greater than $250 million in injury to firms and people,” Brown mentioned. “Her cybercrimes created anxiousness for thousands and thousands of people who find themselves justifiably involved about their non-public info. This conduct deserves a extra important sanction.”

Thompson was arrested in July 2019 and remained in Jail till November of that 12 months, the Seattle Occasions reported. The quantity of restitution Thompson must pay victims might be decided at a December listening to.