eBay Data Breach -- The 'Inexcusable' Impact on 233 Million Customers

eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY ) has just requested its users change their passwords, following a massive data breach that exposed the records of the site's 233 million customers.

eBay stated that the breach exposed customer names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays -- all of which had not been encrypted. Financial information, which had been encrypted on PayPal, was not affected. However, the leak of so much personal data leaves eBay's customers fully exposed to identity theft. Rik Ferguson, global VP of security research at Trend Micro, called eBay's lack of encryption of personal information "inexcusable," in a statement published by The Guardian.

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After companies like eBay, Adobe, and Target are breached, they must spend heavily to rebuild their public images and acquire new customers. Litigation costs could also pile up -- lawsuits against Target and its credit card security company, Trustwave, are still ongoing.

eBay is clearly downplaying the severity of its data breach by emphasizing that no financial records were stolen. But the damage has been done -- eBay's data breach has now been dubbed "the second largest data breach in U.S. history" by Reuters, and will likely tarnish the brand and result in lawsuits.

Companies like eBay need to learn the lesson of The Three Little Pigs -- building a house out of cheap straw and sticks (then refusing to switch to readily available bricks) simply invites the big bad wolf to blow it all down.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/05/22/ebay-data-breach-the-inexcusable-impact-on-233-mil.aspx

Tight bastards they are! I think I'll delete all I can from my eBay account and slowly but most certainly CLOSE THE DAMN THING OUT!!!!

Lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit ...

That is why eBay members have not received a notification from eBay to change your password. It will likely do no good at all as it is too late for that. The damage has been done already!