Surprise! 14 million eBay and Amazon account information is sold on hacker forums

According to foreign media CyberNews, 14 million Amazon and eBay account data were sold on a popular hacker forum, and the poster was an anonymous user.

The data came from users who had an Amazon or eBay account between 2014 and 2021, covering 18 different countries. The database was sold for $800, with accounts divided by their respective countries. The leaked data included customers' full names, postal codes, shipping addresses, store names, and 1.6 million phone records.

The poster of the post reportedly provided five database entries as examples of the leak, and two copies of the material have been sold so far, with the auction now closed.

CyberNews said it could not independently verify or confirm that the data definitely came from Amazon or eBay accounts between 2014 and 2021, nor did it know how the poster obtained the data. An Amazon representative said there was no evidence that any data leak had occurred.

The media said that the most likely scenario is that the databases of Amazon and eBay were not attacked at all, and the hackers used a "password spray" method to obtain the data. Password spray is a brute force attack method in which hackers can try to use some common passwords on a large number of accounts to gain access. In other words, some common and insecure passwords will become the most handy tools in the hands of hackers.

Another possibility is that hackers obtained the leaked data information through channels outside of these two companies, such as the COMB leak that occurred some time ago . Since many users often use the same email/username and password in multiple applications, if the data of one application is leaked, hackers can use this data to attack other applications of the user.

For sellers, account security is even more important. Once a security problem occurs, not only will the funds in the account face huge risks, but the account that you have worked hard to manage may also be lost. So how should sellers protect the security of their accounts?

The first thing is to change to a safer password : According to a recent NordPass report, "123456" is still one of the most commonly used passwords. Compared with this simple and risky password, it is recommended that sellers use some long and difficult to guess passwords, preferably without common names, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols (if allowed). For example: yget%3oe)34hjz;

If conditions permit, sellers can also add verification methods to their accounts , such as sending a verification code through an app or SMS. In this way, anyone who wants to log in to the account must first access the user's mobile device, which provides an extra layer of security for the account.

In addition, do not use the same password for different application services , and do not click any links in emails sent by the applications you use to prevent phishing scams. If you no longer need a service, you should also disconnect third-party applications that have provided access.

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