eBay passwords compromised

By | May 21, 2014

According to Ars Technica, encrypted eBay passwords and other information have been stolen by cyberattackers.  If you have an eBay account, change your password ASAP.  If your eBay password is one you’ve used on other services, including your accounts with HIS, change those passwords too, and don’t use the same password on more than one service.

When password lists are leaked this way, even in encrypted form, the bad guys have very powerful tools for cracking the passwords, and the cracked passwords go into their database of passwords that are used somewhere and thus are probably also used somewhere else, increasing your likelihood of being hacked on another system if you’re using the same password there.

We know that it’s a pain to change passwords, especially email passwords where you might have several devices checking your account (a phone, a tablet, multiple computers), but it’s a bigger pain to get hacked.  When we detect a hacked account, we change the password immediately and there’s a period of time between then and when we can reach you when you’re without access to your account.   If you use strong passwords (mixed upper/lower case, numbers, punctuation) and you don’t use a password on more than one account, your odds of having your account hijacked are greatly reduced.