14 DAY TRIAL // In some cases of data breach incidents, companies do not have to look outside their offices to find the intruder; this is also the case of Capital One, where one of its employees accessed sensitive information about customers without having the necessary clearance.
The individual no longer works for the financial organization, but while under Capital One employment, he or she reached areas that stored names, account numbers and social security numbers. All this is more than enough for a cybercriminal to assume the identity of a Captital One customer for fraudulent purposes.
In a letter to the affected customers signed by Douglas Woodard, Vice President of Operations at Capital One, the company said that law enforcement is investigating the issue and that increased security measures have been taken to prevent the occurrence of such incidents in the future.
To protect its customers from identity theft, the company offers free credit monitoring service for a period of two years for all affected individuals. Enrolling has to be done by customers themselves and it is open until the last day of the year.
Instructions on how to subscribe to the service and the entities that need to be alerted in case of fraudulent card activity are provided in the letter.