Capital One Data Breach Hits 100 Million; Ex-Amazon Worker Is Charged as Hacker

A software engineer in Seattle hacked into a server holding customer information for Capital One and obtained the personal data of over 100 million people, federal prosecutors said on Monday, in one of the largest thefts of data from a bank.

The suspect, Paige Thompson, 33, left a trail online for investigators to follow as she boasted about the hacking, according to court documents in Seattle, where she was arrested and charged with one count of computer fraud and abuse. read more »

Capital One shares drop on questions over hack

Capital One Financial Corp shares fell as much as 5.8% on Tuesday as investors worried about its management of customer data after the credit-card issuer said information for 106 million people had been compromised.

“We are a bit surprised that a single individual could penetrate Capital One’s defenses and gain access to so many accounts,” stock analyst Dominick Gabriele of Oppenheimer & Co said in a note on Monday after Capital One acknowledged the breach. read more »

A Massive U.S. Drug Price-Fixing Probe Has Hit Major Roadblocks

Authorities have called it one of the biggest cases of corporate collusion in history, costing patients billions of dollars.

FBI agents in black vehicles pulled up at the suburban Pittsburgh headquarters of generic drug giant Mylan NV. Wearing windbreakers with block-yellow FBI logos and carrying a warrant, they headed for the fifth-floor executive offices.

The September 2016 raid was meant to surface what a multiyear Justice Department investigation hadn’t found up to that point: evidence that Mylan’s top executives played a role in what authorities have described as widespread price fixing in the generic-drug industry—potentially one of the biggest corporate collusion cases in U.S. history. Mylan, which on Monday announced a deal to be absorbed into Pfizer Inc.’s older drugs unit next year, has denied any wrongdoing. read more »

3 Pharmaceutical Companies Agree to Pay California $70 Million for Delaying Drugs

Three pharmaceutical companies collectively are agreeing to pay California nearly $70 million to settle allegations that they delayed drugs to keep prices high, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Monday.

The bulk of the money will come from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and its affiliates for paying to delay a generic narcolepsy drug, Provigil, from entering the market for nearly six years.

Teva is paying $69 million, which Becerra says is the largest pay-for-delay settlement received by any state.

Such agreements let the developer of brand name drugs keep their monopolies over the drugs after their patents expire, thereby letting them continue to charge consumers higher prices. The drug developer pays the generic manufacturer to keep the cheaper version of the drug from entering the marketplace for an agreed period of time. read more »