You may have the perfect password, but the most important thing is not to use it everywhere. That's the advice from companies that have been the victims of unauthorized access to their services, most recently the attack on auction site eBay that compromised an estimated 112 million accounts.
The eBay breach occurred after hackers obtained employee account information, which allowed them to hack into the company's network and ultimately into the auction site's member databases. Of particular concern is the risk of access to Paypal account information, but eBay Inc. insists there was no breach.
By May 22, eBay had made it known that unauthorized access to its servers was placed between the last days of February and the beginning of March 2014. It concerned data tables with the following information about the service's members:
- Name
- (Encrypted) password
- Address
- Phone number
- Date of Birth
Therefore, you should change your password on eBay and, above all, anywhere else you used the same login/password. This is because it is not at all unlikely that hackers will attempt to access other popular services with the information they have collected, resulting in access and collection of more of your personal information.
Where possible, use two-step authentication (e.g., you enter your password and before logging in, the service sends you a unique temporary one-time code to your mobile phone that you must enter to access your account).
Finally, note that it is common for fake emails to be sent to users of non-services that have made headlines for cyberattacks. Often, these fake emails, which in this case will appear to have been sent by eBay, contain links to fake websites, where the user will attempt to re-enter their information to change their password, which will be stolen by the creators of the fake page. eBay recognizes the risk and points out in their announcements to members of the service that the emails sent by the real eBay do not contain links and you should delete them.
The tips eBay gives for creating strong passwords are:
- It should not look like your eBay user ID or email address
- Don't use obvious words or a sequence of numbers or letters like Password123
- Don't use personal information that can be easily learned or searched for, such as names, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
- Do not use the same password on other accounts, such as email, banking or social networking
- Change your password frequently, at least every 60-90 days.
Source: tech.in.gr
