Brace yourselves, Ologists: Zappos has been the victim of a cyber attack that exposed data from millions of customers. If you're anything like me, when you first read that sentence, you were like: "Oh, no! Zapdos is the target of a cyber attack!" And then you were like, "*shakes fist* PORYGONNNNNNN!" Thankfully, though, the legendary bird is safe--Zappos.com isn't an electric pocket monster, it's an online shoe store. We clear? Good.
Zappos' official statement on the hack comes via a letter from CEO Tony Hsieh, who indicates that exposed information may include: names, email addresses, billing and/or shipping addresses, phone numbers, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and encrypted passwords. There is a evidently a silver lining, however: According to Hsieh, credit card and payment data were not compromised.
Corero Network Security's Neil Roiter reports, ""We don't know how the breach occurred, or when or over how long a period of time it took place" but confirms that some 24 million customer accounts were breached. Network security engineers are hard at work identifying the currently unknown vulnerability the hackers exploited to take advanage of Zappos. Hopefully, the techies will be able to figure out what went wrong in time to prevent similar issues elsewhere. Until then, the site has forced users to change their passwords and issued a number of general-purpose security tips. Make sure your passwords are different for every site you visit, use sufficiently complex passwords to thwart hacking attempts, and watch your bank accounts--or tell your credit card companies to be on the lookout--for suspicious activity. Be advised: Commenters have reported fradulent charges on their credit cards. Can't be too careful!
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