The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced this week that it has entered into a Consent Order and fined Capital One $80 million for the data breach the company experienced last year. The OCC announced the fine and stated that it was the result of an investigation that found that Capital One failed to adequately identify and manage risk as it moved significant portions of its technological operations to the cloud.

In its Consent Order, the OCC stated that the company lacked sufficient network security and data loss prevention controls and that when the internal audit department did identify issues, the bank’s board of directors failed to hold management accountable to address them.

The data breach affected the information of 100 million individuals from the U.S. and 6 million Canadians. Of the data that were compromised, approximately 140,000 Social Security numbers and 80,000 linked bank account numbers were affected.

The OCC also is requiring Capital One to enhance security measures to adequately guard against general cybersecurity risks as well as risks specific to cloud operations, which are required to be submitted and reviewed by the regulator.

Photo of Linn Foster Freedman Linn Foster Freedman

Linn Freedman practices in data privacy and security law, cybersecurity, and complex litigation. She is a member of the Business Litigation Group and the Financial Services Cyber-Compliance Team, and chairs the firm’s Data Privacy and Security and Artificial Intelligence Teams. Linn focuses her…

Linn Freedman practices in data privacy and security law, cybersecurity, and complex litigation. She is a member of the Business Litigation Group and the Financial Services Cyber-Compliance Team, and chairs the firm’s Data Privacy and Security and Artificial Intelligence Teams. Linn focuses her practice on compliance with all state and federal privacy and security laws and regulations. She counsels a range of public and private clients from industries such as construction, education, health care, insurance, manufacturing, real estate, utilities and critical infrastructure, marine and charitable organizations, on state and federal data privacy and security investigations, as well as emergency data breach response and mitigation. Linn is an Adjunct Professor of the Practice of Cybersecurity at Brown University and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law.  Prior to joining the firm, Linn served as assistant attorney general and deputy chief of the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Rhode Island. She earned her J.D. from Loyola University School of Law and her B.A., with honors, in American Studies from Newcomb College of Tulane University. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Read her full rc.com bio here.