This morning, eBay had to painstakingly announce that their network was compromised and the hack included a database with users’ login password information. eBay says they have no evidence that financial information was leaked, but is advising all users to change their passwords immediately. The hack is believed to be the biggest breach since the Target hack earlier this year that was said to have involved over 100 million Target customers.
The first statement was made on Paypal, requesting for all eBay users to update their password and was retweeting a few times before being taken down. It caused confusion until eBay Inc. released an official statement about the breach on their blog, confirming the attack.
It is said that the password database was hacked into late February and early March, and that it contained customer names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers and even the date of birth of the account holders. Quite alarming, but Paypal accounts did not figure in the list. With that said, this is prime example of why you should use different passwords for each account. Anyone that shares the same eBay and Paypal password should most definitely change both as testing identical passwords on various accounts is common practice among blackhat hackers.
As of now, eBay says there have been no reports or evidence suggesting that any unauthorized activity was perpetrated with the stolen information and that no evidence can suggest that financial information could have possibly been leaked. In the report, they try to appease any concern about Paypal users who store credit card information, advising that Paypal data is stored on separate highly secured networks and that the information remains encrypted, to help keep it secure even if stolen.
The breach was detected two weeks ago and immediately began a forensic process to find exactly what was compromised and stolen from the network. It is said that the breach originated from a few stolen eBay employee login credentials that provided access to further eBay network databases.
eBay advised it will begin sending email alerts and various other notification methods today, to advise users to update passwords. It will continue to investigate and provide updates later on. eBay shares saw a considerable drop of 1.73% after the security breach announcement,
This year will certainly be remembered as one of the worst for internet security and breaches. With many large events and the infamous SSL Heartbleed bug, the message of security and encryption could not be any clearer. VPNs are no exception and helping keep your identity hidden away from cyber criminals.
If you’re looking for a VPN to protect your privacy, please feel free to search your country or device for some of our top picks and recommendations.
when was this posted?
This dates back to May 2014, official statements by eBay would be sent to users by email in the occurrence of any future hacks.