Congress Launches Investigation Into Capital One, Amazon For Massive Data Breach

Topline:  Congress has launched an investigation into Capital One and Amazon for a massive data breach that exposed sensitive financial information from more than 100 million people. For Amazon, the inquiry could jeopardize a lucrative cloud computing contract with the Pentagon. 

• In letters sent to both companies obtained by Forbes, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform asked Capital One and Amazon to submit materials related to the hack in order to probe how the breach will affect Americans and how the Virginia-based bank responded to the incident. 

• Since the data was breached on an Amazon cloud computing server, the committee said it has to “carefully examine the consequences of this breach” because Amazon is already providing cloud support for the 2020 Census and “could potentially run” the Department of Defense’s cloud computing system.

Neither Amazon nor Capital One immediately responded to a request for comment from Forbes.

News Peg: A former Amazon employee was arrested for the hack, according to court documents. The hacker, a Seattle woman named Paige Thompson, obtained information from credit card applications, including 140,000 social security numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers, in what is one of the largest breaches of a financial services institution ever.

Key Background: Amazon is one of two companies in the running for a $10 billion “war cloud” contract for the Defense Department (the other company is Microsoft). 

President Donald Trump has already said he may “look into” the bidding process for the deal following complaints the Pentagon showed favoritism toward Amazon. The Capital One investigation could inject even more doubt into the process.

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Topline:  Congress has launched an investigation into Capital One and Amazon for a massive data breach that exposed sensitive financial information from more than 100 million people. For Amazon, the inquiry could jeopardize a lucrative cloud computing contract with the Pentagon. 

• In letters sent to both companies obtained by Forbes, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform asked Capital One and Amazon to submit materials related to the hack in order to probe how the breach will affect Americans and how the Virginia-based bank responded to the incident. 

• Since the data was breached on an Amazon cloud computing server, the committee said it has to “carefully examine the consequences of this breach” because Amazon is already providing cloud support for the 2020 Census and “could potentially run” the Department of Defense’s cloud computing system.

Neither Amazon nor Capital One immediately responded to a request for comment from Forbes.

News Peg: A former Amazon employee was arrested for the hack, according to court documents. The hacker, a Seattle woman named Paige Thompson, obtained information from credit card applications, including 140,000 social security numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers, in what is one of the largest breaches of a financial services institution ever.

Key Background: Amazon is one of two companies in the running for a $10 billion “war cloud” contract for the Defense Department (the other company is Microsoft). 

President Donald Trump has already said he may “look into” the bidding process for the deal following complaints the Pentagon showed favoritism toward Amazon. The Capital One investigation could inject even more doubt into the process.