Hackers have accessed the records of around 145 million
eBay Inc. customers in what has been one of the most prolific hacker attacks on record. According to the company, the attack took place around 3 months ago but it only recently recommended that customers change their passwords. However, the company did also suggest that any passwords that were stolen in the attack were robustly encrypted and there was no indication that hackers had been able to decrypt any password information.
Alongside eBay passwords, hackers were able to access eBay customers’ email addresses and other sensitive information such as their physical addresses and dates of birth. The company did though suggest credit card had not been breached. Forensic investigators FireEye Inc. (famed for its report on hacking related to China’s Peoples’ Liberation Army) have been brought in to find out more about the attack.
eBay suggested that hackers were able to access eBay's network because they had obtained employees’ login credentials. To date eBay has not seen any evidence that stolen data has been used for online fraud. The company alerted the police and relevant bodies as soon as the breach had been discovered.
The attack on eBay could make it the second-largest known breach of online customer information to date. In 2013 hackers got into around 150 million Adobe Systems Inc.’s user accounts.
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