eBay’s officials confirm a compromise on it’s users accounts and directed everyone to change their passwords. The e-commerce giant also provided that there was no evidence of financial information leaking into the hands of the hackers but the concern of the hack itself created a big stir online.
The news of the compromise made headlines on Wednesday when an official from eBay told cNet that their database was hacked into which contained users’ account information and passwords. This was after eBay’s Paypal posted a blog saying, “eBay Inc. to ask all eBay users to change passwords” but soon enough took the blog down again as well. eBay then posted an official blog about the compromise and asked users to change their passwords. The blog quickly went viral especially in Twitter. Users feared that regardless of eBay giving assurance about no financial leaks or transfers, their names, emails and personal information has gone into the wrong hands.
cNet reports that eBay’s post stated, “After conducting extensive tests on its networks, the company said it has no evidence of the compromise resulting in unauthorized activity for eBay users, and no evidence of any unauthorized access to financial or credit card information, which is stored separately in encrypted formats. However, changing passwords is a best practice and will help enhance security for eBay users.” eBay added, “PayPal data is stored separately on a secure network, and all PayPal financial information is encrypted”.
According to cNet, eBay is going to be on a marketing drive to help users stay informed about the incident and communicate the required changes for security purposes. The drive will involve eBay to actively let it’s users know about what happened and why they should start changing their passwords as soon as possible. With 128 million active users online, the company is taking effective steps to let users know that there is no need to panic but at the same time they need to ensure a secure platform for everyone.
