Capital One Breach

Target Audience

Undergraduate
Graduate

Keywords

Capital One
Web Security
Cloud Security
Insider Attacks

Introduction

Overview

The Capital One breach of 2019 was a major cybersecurity breach that exposed the sensitive data of over 100 million individuals. A former employee of a cloud service provider exploited a misconfiguration in Capital One's cloud firewall, gaining access to credit application data. Despite being a relatively simple attack, it went undetected until an outsider reported the data being publicly shared online. The breach highlighted the importance of cloud security, insider threat management, and continuous monitoring.

Vulnerability Details

The attacker was a former Amazon Web Services (AWS) employee who discovered a firewall misconfiguration in Capital One's infrastructure. Using knowledge of cloud systems and access controls, the attacker was able to query metadata services to retrieve credentials and extract customer data from cloud storage. The attack was not detected internally. Instead, a GitHub user who found the data publicly posted online notified Capital One. The FBI was involved in the investigation. This case underscores the importance of identity and access management, proper configuration audits, encryption, logging, and insider threat mitigation strategies.

Learning Objectives

Explain cloud security and web security
Describe security and privacy violations in the CapitalOne data breach
List common protection mechanisms for cloud security and web security

Download

Includes a PDF case study adapted from a real-world cyber breach
Guided questions for student engagement
Instructor materials including context and background
All content packaged in a downloadable ZIP file

Remote Terminal

Terminal Description

Module Questions

What happened in the Capital One data breach of 2019?A hacker exploited a misconfiguration in Capital One's cloud infrastructure, allowing unauthorized access to sensitive data of over 100 million customers.An employee accidentally leaked customer data through unsecured email.A former employee hacked into Capital One's mobile banking app and stole customer data.Capital One's internal systems were compromised by ransomware.

What are two effective security mechanisms to guard against vulnerabilities in cloud environments?Disabling all cloud services and moving to on-premise servers.Allowing all employees full access to cloud services for efficiency.Using weak encryption to save processing time.Implementing proper Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies and conducting regular cloud configuration audits.

How can companies mitigate the risk of insider attacks in cloud-based environments?Encourage employees to use the same password across multiple platforms.Allow all employees full access to cloud services at all times.Implement role-based access control (RBAC), use activity monitoring tools, and enforce the principle of least privilege for all users.Disable all logging to reduce storage costs.

How can companies improve monitoring and response times to detect breaches like the Capital One attack?Implement real-time monitoring with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools and establish incident response protocols to quickly address breaches.Only check for breaches during business hours.Wait for customers to report suspicious activity.Disable monitoring to avoid alert fatigue.

What weaknesses were present in Capital One's cloud security practices that led to the breach?Lack of antivirus software in the cloud.Use of unencrypted data for internal testing.Misconfigured firewall settings, weak IAM policies, and insufficient monitoring of cloud activity.No backups of customer data.