From Today Online:
NEW YORK — E-commerce company eBay said client identity information including emails, addresses and birthdays were stolen in a hacking attack between late February and early March.
eBay urged users to change their passwords after the attack on a database that also contained encrypted passwords, physical addresses and phone numbers.
It said it found no evidence of any unauthorised access to financial or credit card information.
eBay shares fell as much as 3.2 per cent after the latest high-profile hacking attack on the United States company.
“For the time being, we cannot comment on the specific number of accounts impacted. However, we believe there may be a large number of accounts involved and we are asking all eBay users to change their passwords,” eBay spokesman Kari Ramirez said.
The attack was made through compromised employee accounts that allowed unauthorised access to its corporate network, the company said in a statement. It said the breach was first detected about two weeks ago.
The company said it found no evidence of unauthorised access to personal or financial information for users of its online payment service, PayPal.
eBay earlier issued a notice on its PayPal website asking users to change their passwords, but took down the message a short time later without explanation.
The message headline was “eBay Inc To Ask All eBay Users To Change Passwords” but had no other information other than the words “place holder text”.
www.todayonline.com/tech/ebay-database-hacked
According to a security expert on BBC R5, the data taken has the potential to aid identity theft.