A former Seattle tech employee convicted of a number of expenses 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 Choose Robert S. Lasnik mentioned sentencing former Amazon software program engineer Paige Thompson to time in jail would have been notably troublesome on her "due to her psychological well being and transgender standing," the Division of Justice mentioned in an announcement.
U.S. Lawyer Nick Brown mentioned his workplace was "very upset" 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 expenses, together with entry system fraud and aggravated id theft.
Thompson, 37, obtained the non-public data of over 100 million folks — 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 info.
Psychological well being points
Thompson's attorneys argued at trial that she struggled with psychological well being points, by no means meant to revenue from the info she obtained, and mentioned in court docket papers "there isn't a credible or direct proof that a single particular person's id was misused."
Federal prosecutors mentioned she did not simply steal the info, but additionally planted software program on servers she unlawfully accessed to steal computing energy to mine cryptocurrency.
"Ms. Thompson's hacking and theft of knowledge of 100 million folks did greater than $250 million in harm to firms and people," Brown mentioned. "Her cybercrimes created nervousness for tens of millions of people who find themselves justifiably involved about their non-public data. This conduct deserves a extra vital sanction."
Thompson was arrested in July 2019 and remained in jail till November of that yr, The Seattle Occasions reported. The quantity of restitution Thompson should pay victims will probably be decided at a December listening to.