Turning the Paige

I'm no criminologist, but it seems to me that some very smart people do some very bad things and then feel bad about it, so they do something to give themselves away.

Arson investigators will tell you that their suspect is usually hanging around the scene of the fire he just lit. Bank robbers frequently return to the scene of the crime, just like in the movies, and I remember 911 calls from people who were calling to report their car stolen and then saw the car thief drive the car right past their house as they reported it.

One other thing I know as an amateur crime-buster is that bad people are often crazy, and look it.

Say hi to Paige Thompson. Paige is 33, a resident of moist Seattle, and a software engineer by trade.
 

She is now being held in connection with the data breach of Capital One, and putting the personal business of over 100 million people out there for all to see. It looks like one of the biggest breaches of a major bank ever.

It took brilliant police work to round Paige up for this caper. She admitted to it, even bragged about it online.

Perhaps she thought the police would think she couldn't have done it because who would be crazy enough to admit such a thing.

Thompson goes by the internet handle "erratic" in the same way I should go by "tall" and Taylor Swift should use "cute." Sometimes one word is enough.

All in all, 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians were affected, having their Social Security numbers and credit scores and bank balances revealed for what they are. The bank will offer free credit monitoring services to those affected.

The FBI reports that someone named "erratic" was on social sites such as GitHub and Slack, bragging about distributing Capital One's data:

“I’ve basically strapped myself with a bomb vest, (expletive) dropping capitol ones dox and admitting it,” the message said. “I wanna distribute those buckets I think first.”

I think "dox" means "documents" like "vax" means "vaccines."

Thompson was on the Meetup network talking about having a "hack night" and saying that her cat needed veterinary care, and then posting the vet bill WITH HER NAME AND ADDRESS on the site.

Maybe she wanted to be caught, maybe she's just "erratic."  I hope that when she goes to prison for a long time, her cat finds a better human companion.