eBay’s database was hacked three months ago, and users are just finding out now.
According to eBay’s blog, “The database, which was compromised between late February and early March, included customers’ names, encrypted password, email address, physical address, phone number and date of birth.” So why are they making this post three months later?
In order to sell and buy on eBay, it requires their users to give a lot of personal information. Now eBay is that this is all information the hackers had access to.
The only thing that is safe is users’ financial information, because this information is stored in a separate place than was hacked. Anyone who’s financial accounts are connected to Paypal were not affected either, as this is separate information than was hacked.
The only reasonable excuse for this large gap of time between the incident and them informing the public is that it happened. eBay said they had conducted an “extensive tests on its networks,” between the time it happened and the time they released the information on the hacking to the public.
What is sparking anger amongst users is not that the breach happened, but that it took so long for this information to get to them. Those who are users should have been notified by email a little after the time the post was made, where eBay would encourage them to change their passwords for security reasons.
Months later, the company says they are still working to solve the matter and protect its users. The company went on to say that they are still investigating the incident, and no suspects have been named.
In a letter from eBay’s President Devin Wenig said, “We are looking at other ways to strengthen security on eBay.”
Although users may not like the lack of communication between the company and its users up until now, the company does seem to be working to make its users more informed.
Wenig went on to say that users should look out for new security features as they are planning to implement them over the coming weeks, and that whatever changes are made they will let their users know about it.
The company says that even though there was no significant damage done, to make if you are an eBay user, that you change your password.
