Ex-AWS engineer convicted of hacking data of 100 mn customers

San Francisco, June 19

A former female engineer of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the Cloud arm of commerce giant Amazon, has been found guilty of hacking into more than 100 million customers' cloud storage systems and stealing data linked to the 2019 Capital One breach. Paige Thompson, 36-year-old former tech worker, was convicted in the US District Court in Seattle of seven federal crimes connected to her scheme to hack into cloud computer data storage accounts and steal data and computer power for her own benefit.

She was arrested in July 2019 after Capital One alerted the FBI to Thompson's hacking activity.

Thompson is scheduled for sentencing by US District Judge Robert S. Lasnik on September 15, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

"Thompson used her hacking skills to steal the personal information of more than 100 million people, and hijacked computer servers to mine cryptocurrency," said US Attorney Nick Brown.

"Far from being an ethical hacker trying to help companies with their computer security, she exploited mistakes to steal valuable data and sought to enrich herself," Brown added.

Thompson was found guilty of wire fraud, five counts of unauthorised access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. The jury found her not guilty of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

"She wanted data, she wanted money, and she wanted to brag," Assistant US Attorney Andrew Friedman said.

The intrusion to Capital One accounts impacted more than 100 million US customers. The company was fined $80 million and settled customer lawsuits for $190 million.

--IANS