Paige A. Thompson a/k/a ‘erratic,’ ended up arrested in July 2019, after Capital One alerted the FBI to her hacking activity. A federal jury found her guilty in June 2022, following a seven-day trial. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said, time in prison would be particularly difficult for Thompson because of her mental health and transgender status.
“While we understand the mitigating factors, we are very disappointed with the court’s sentencing decision. This is not what justice looks like,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.
Thompson was found guilty of wire fraud, five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer.
Using Thompson’s own words in texts and online chats, prosecutors showed how Thompson used a tool she built to scan Amazon Web Services accounts to look for misconfigured accounts.
She then used those misconfigured accounts to hack in and download the data of more than 30 entities, including Capital One bank. With some of her illegal access, she planted cryptocurrency mining software on new servers with the income from the mining going to her online wallet.
Thompson spent hundreds of hours advancing her scheme, and bragged about her illegal conduct to others via text or online forums.
Asking the court to impose a seven-year sentence, prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo, “…Thompson’s crimes … were fully intentional and grounded in spite, revenge, and willful disregard for the law. She exhibited a smug sense of superiority and outright glee while committing these crimes…. Thompson was motivated to make money at other people’s expense, to prove she was smarter than the people she hacked, and to earn bragging rights in the hacking community.”