For all of eBay’s talk about notifying users about its deep, devastating database breach—in which hackers swiped customer names, email addresses and physical addresses, phone number, date of birth, and yes, encrypted passwords—an official notification of the incident has yet to hit my inbox, and judging from reactions on Twitter, I’m not the only one being left in the dark.
Seems very wrong that over 24hrs after the announced they were hacked to Press that eBay still haven’t sent email to their customers.
— Uberwife (@buffgirl73) May 22, 2014//
Here’s the deal: Regardless of whether or not you’ve received an email telling you to change your eBay password, you need to change your eBay password now. Here’s how.
How to change your eBay password
First, visit eBay.com and sign into your account (duh). Click on the My eBay link tucked in the upper-right corner of the homepage. Then, on your My eBay page, hover your mouse over the Account tab and select Personal Information from the drop-down menu.
You’ll be taken to the Personal Information page. In the Account Information section near the top, look for the Password option and click the Edit button.
On the next page, you’ll need to enter the email address you use with eBay, and then you’ll need to pick whether you want to reset your eBay password via email or text. If you choose email, you’ll get a message in your inbox with a link you can use to reset your password. If you choose text, eBay will send a four digit PIN to your phone and take you to another page; you’ll need to enter the PIN in the field provided.
You can choose to reset your password via email or text message.
Once that’s done, just devise a new password, then confirm it. Don’t reuse passwords from another site! We suggest either using a password manager or a trick like this to create strong, unique passwords. You’ll be prompted to log in again with the new password after setting it up.
While creating a new password is a necessity in a situation like this, don’t let your guard down simply because your account is protected by a fresh code. Attackers stole a lot of customer personal information from eBay’s servers, which could lead to a wave of social engineering attacks. Watch out for phishing attempts in the coming weeks, and read up on how to protect your PC against devious security traps in the meantime.