Not a False Alarm: eBay Hacked

It's not a false alarm after all: eBay really has been hacked, the company confirmed this morning following a confusing rescinded announcement. At about 1:30am, eBay's PayPal unit posted a message headlined "eBay Inc. to Ask All eBay Users to Change Passwords," Reuters reports, but the body of the post said only "place holder text." That page was soon quietly taken down, but not before it had spread on Twitter.

But now, the online auction giant is confirming for CNET that hackers did indeed breach its "corporate information network," making off with users' passwords. In a blog post, the company said it would ask users to change their passwords later today, both on eBay and on any other sites where they're using the same password. "We believe there may be a large number of accounts involved," a spokesperson said. There's no evidence, however, that any financial information was taken, or of unauthorized activity on eBay accounts. (More eBay stories.)