eBay Hacked: Change Your Passwords! NOW!

Online marketplace eBay is forcing users to change their passwords after a cyber-attack compromised its systems.

The US firm said a database was hacked between late February and early March and had contained encrypted passwords and other non-financial data.

The company added that it has no evidence of unauthorised activity on its members accounts.

However it said that changing the passwords is "best practice and will help enhance security for eBay users".

The California company has 128 million active users and recorded $212bn commerce on its various marketplaces and other services in 2013.

Facebook said it will contact users via email, its website, adverts and social media to alert them of the issue. 

 

Cyber-attackers accessed the information after obtaining "a small number of employee log-in credentials", that allowed them to access its systems, which facebook first became aware of this only two weeks ago.

Facebook said: "The database... included eBay customers' name, encrypted password, email address, physical address, phone number and date of birth.

However, the database did not contain financial information or other confidential personal information.

Extensive forensics subsequently identified the compromised eBay database, resulting in the company's announcement today."

Although the firm also owns the PayPal money transfer service, but it said that the PayPal data is stored separately and encrypted and there is no evidence that it was accessed.