Capital One Financial agreed to pay $190 million to settle customer lawsuit over cyberattack

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Capital One settles cyberattack lawsuit

Capital One Financial agreed to pay $190 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that customers filed against the firm after a hacker broke into its cloud-computing systems and stole their personal information.

Representatives for those customers, Capital One and Amazon Web Services — the lender’s cloud provider — jointly asked U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga to pause proceedings while the court evaluates the agreement. The settlement will cover 98 million Americans, and Capital One said it is fully reserved for the amount. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

“While Capital One and AWS deny all liability, in the interest of avoiding the time, expense and uncertainty of continued litigation, plaintiffs and Capital One have executed a term sheet containing the essential terms of a class settlement that, if approved by this court, will fully resolve all claims brought by plaintiffs,” according to a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

In July 2019, Capital One announced data from about 100 million people in the United States was illegally accessed. Federal prosecutors ultimately arrested Paige A. Thompson, a former Amazon cloud employee, for breaking into the bank’s server.

Capital One has remained one of the financial industry’s earliest and biggest proponents of cloud technology, and last year finished exiting its data centers.

The McLean, Va.-based firm, which also has been investing in cybersecurity, last year poached Andy Ozment to become one its leading information-security executives.

— Bloomberg News

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Intel apologizes over China comments

Intel apologized after its opposition to Xinjiang labor sparked a backlash against the U.S. chipmaker in China, highlighting how multinational companies are increasingly getting caught up in a geopolitical spat between two global powers over issues such as human rights.

The chipmaker sent a letter asking suppliers not to use any labor or products sourced from Xinjiang “in order to ensure compliance with U.S. legal requirements,” it said in a WeChat statement Thursday. The company had no other intention and did not mean to express a position on the matter, according to the statement.

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“We thank everyone for raising their questions and concerns and respect the sensitivity of the issue in China,” Intel said. “As a multinational company, we operate in a constantly evolving and complex global environment and should adopt a prudent attitude. For causing trouble to our esteemed Chinese customers, partners and the general public, we express our sincere apologies.”

Intel’s apology comes after social media users this week seized on the issue to criticize the U.S. firm.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian asked Intel to “respect facts” on Xinjiang, at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Thursday.

Western governments including the United States have accused Beijing of employing forced labor in Xinjiang, including in the cotton industry, and imposed sanctions over alleged human rights abuses. China has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as lies and retaliated with sanctions of its own.

— Bloomberg News

Also in Business

Meta Platforms is challenging the British antitrust watchdog's landmark decision ordering the social network to unwind its $315 million purchase of GIF search engine Giphy. The Facebook parent has filed an appeal at the United Kingdom's Competition Appeal Tribunal and asked the court to halt the regulator's order to sell Giphy, Meta said Thursday. Giphy gives users access to millions of GIFs, video clips often used to communicate in the digital age.

Endo International has agreed to pay $63 million to resolve claims by the state of Texas and local governments that the drugmaker helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic, the state's attorney general said on Thursday. The deal announced by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) marked the latest in a series of settlements that Endo has struck in recent months with state and local governments to resolve similar cases. More than 3,400 lawsuits largely by state and local governments have been filed.

— From news services