The computer engineer who was arrested by the FBI for hacking more than 100 million Capital One customers is a male-to-female transgender.
Paige A. Thompson, 33, was arrested during a federal raid of his Seattle home on Monday, July 29.
Authorities say Thompson hacked into Capital One’s computers, stole the data of 106 million Capital One customers and posted it on GitHub, a sharing service populated by computer programmers and hackers.
Thompson then bragged on Twitter.com and other social media apps, according to federal officials. Thompson also threatened to “shoot up” a California social media company, federal authorities said.
On July 17, someone contacted Capital One to inform the company that its customers sensitive credit data was on GitHub.
Thompson was identified in the news media as a “she”, but skeptical social media users questioned Thompson’s strong male characteristics.
The software developer and former Amazon employee grew up in a broken home and has a history of depression and “suicidal thoughts. Thompson struggled to find employment, and difficulties transitioning from male to female.
