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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

eBbay Suffers Cyberattack, Users Should Change Their Passwords Right Now

Posted By on Wed, May 21, 2014 at 7:34 AM

click to enlarge Change your passwords! - WIKIMEDIA/COOLCAESAR
  • wikimedia/Coolcaesar
  • Change your passwords!

eBay Inc. fired off a blog post this morning, saying that at some point today, preferably now, users should change their passwords, thanks to the hackers who broke into the corporate network.

According to the blog post on eBay's site, the cyberattackers compromised a database that contained encrypted passwords and other non-financial yet very important data, including customers' name, encrypted password, email address, physical address, phone number and date of birth.

The good news is that the San Jose-based company ran extensive tests on the network and has thus far found no evidence of any unauthorized access to financial or credit card information.

So that should buy you some time to preempt any malicious activity on your account by changing your password now.

Sometime between February and March, the cyberattackers cracked into the network and gained access to a small number of employee log-in credentials, allowing unauthorized access to eBay's corporate network, eBay said. The company only noticed the break-on about two weeks ago.

"Working with law enforcement and leading security experts, the company is aggressively investigating the matter and applying the best forensics tools and practices to protect customers," according to a statement.

So be on the lookout for an email from eBay, which will start notifying customers that will include site communications and other marketing channels to change their password. To make matters more of a pain it he ass, eBay is asking encouraging you to change your passwords on other sites, if it's the same one you use for your eBay account -- just to be safe.

Now for the company's apologies:

Information security and customer data protection are of paramount importance to eBay Inc., and eBay regrets any inconvenience or concern that this password reset may cause our customers. We know our customers trust us with their information, and we take seriously our commitment to maintaining a safe, secure and trusted global marketplace.

We're not gong to tell you again -- go change your password now.


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About The Author

Erin Sherbert

Erin Sherbert

Bio:
Erin Sherbert was the Online News Editor for SF Weekly from 2010 to 2015. She's a Texas native and has a closet full of cowboy boots to prove it.

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