Ex-Amazon Engineer Turned Hacker

Sometimes, the crime that shakes the world doesn’t come from a gunshot or an explosion — but from a laptop, some code, and an internet connection.

In July 2019, Capital One — a major U.S. bank — became the victim of a massive data breach.

A hacker gained access to credit card applications, personal details, and sensitive information of over 100 million people.

This breach included names, addresses, credit scores, income details, and social security numbers.

This is the story of Paige Thompson, a 33-year-old software engineer from Seattle.

In 2005, when Paige Thompson was still under 20 years old, she had already worked several software development jobs.

Then in 2015, she landed a job at Amazon Web Services (AWS) — Amazon’s cloud computing division — where Capital One stored its data.

She worked there for about a year. But Thompson was struggling with mental health issues and felt out of place in the tech industry.

She believed people didn’t accept her gender transition.

She was intelligent but battling depression, unemployment, and instability.

She spent most of her time on online forums, Slack groups, and GitHub.

Her experience at AWS had made her an expert in the vulnerabilities of cloud systems — knowledge that would soon lead to a major crime.

By early 2019, years after leaving Amazon, Thompson began looking for companies that had misconfigured their firewalls and weren’t protecting their data properly.

She built a tool that could scan AWS accounts.

Then, she hacked into those misconfigured accounts and downloaded data from over 30 organizations — including Capital One.

On some of these servers, she even installed crypto-mining software, allowing her to use others’ computers without permission to generate cryptocurrency that went directly into her wallet.

The hack affected 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians.

All of this data was stolen on April 21st.

Rather than hide her crime, Paige immediately began boasting about it.

She posted on GitHub: "I’ve extracted this data."

She told friends on Slack: "I have all this stuff."

And in a private Twitter message, she wrote:

"I’ve strapped myself with a bomb jacket... I’m leaking Capital One’s data… and I admit it."

This was the moment... when her downfall began.

A GitHub user saw her post and immediately emailed Capital One:

"Your data has been stolen."

Capital One promptly contacted the FBI.

Two days later, the investigation began.

FBI agent Joel Martini began collecting Thompson’s digital traces.

He found her account on Meetup, linked to a group called "Erratic" — which was also her online alias.

In that Meetup group was an invite to a Slack channel.

Inside that Slack, "Erratic" had posted lists of stolen files, convincing the FBI that these were indeed the same files stolen on April 21st.

The FBI found even more on Slack.

Another user warned “Erratic”:

"This looks sketchy… please don’t go to jail!"

To which she replied:

"I want to get all this off the server, so I’m archiving it. It’s all encrypted."

On Slack, Thompson had also shared personal details, including things about her pet.

FBI agents confirmed that the Twitter account "Erratic" also belonged to Paige — where she tweeted about her work, programming, and her cat.

It was through this same account that she had messaged someone about the Capital One data leak.

Cyber investigators confirmed Paige Thompson was behind the breach.

On July 29, 2019, agents executed a search warrant at her home.

They seized electronic storage devices — and found copies of the stolen data.

Thompson was brought to court and charged with computer fraud and data theft.

"Paige Thompson’s name has now become a textbook example in the world of cybercrime — a case study that shows how vulnerable personal information can be in the modern tech age, and how one person’s recklessness or brilliance can put the privacy of millions at risk."

This isn’t just a story about a hacker —

It’s the story of a world that lives online...

And is always at risk.