eBay tells users to change passwords

Online giant asks users to reset passwords after hackers broke its database containing clients’ information.

US online giant eBay has asked its users to change their passwords after the company announced that hackers broke into its database containing clients’ non-financial information earlier this year.

The California-based e-commerce company said on Wednesday that the compromised database, which was targeted between late February and early March this year, contained customer names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, birth dates, physical addresses and phone numbers.

The company said in a statement that the attack had allowed unauthorised access to the company’s corporate network but it found no evidence of any unauthorised access to financial or credit card information.

eBay owns electronic payment service PayPal, but it said that there was no evidence PayPal information was hacked, since that information was stored separately on a secure network.

An investigation is active, said the company, adding that it cannot comment on the specific number of accounts affected, but said that the number could be large.