In the last few years there have been major hacks of some of the most popular web sites, including LinkedIn, Yahoo, and Gmail.
All that information is saved by the hackers and sold or given away on what’s known as the “dark web.”
And even though you may have changed your password when Yahoo alerted you that your old email account was breached, did you happen to use that same password for your Amazon account?
Hackers are pouring over the bones of old hacks, using the information there to target high value accounts you may have forgotten about, like Amazon Seller accounts. The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Stevens and Robert McMillan report:
In recent weeks, attackers have changed the bank-deposit information on Amazon accounts of active sellers to steal tens of thousands of dollars from each, according to several sellers and advisers. Attackers also have hacked into the Amazon accounts of sellers who haven’t used them recently to post nonexistent merchandise for sale at steep discounts in an attempt to pocket the cash, those people say.
The fraud stems largely from email and password credentials stolen from previously hacked accounts and then sold on what’s dubbed the “dark web,” a network of anonymous internet servers where hackers communicate and trade illicit information. Such hacks previously have favored sites such as PayPal Inc. and eBay Inc., but Amazon recently has become a target of choice, according to cybersecurity experts. The fraud isn’t likely to significantly affect consumers because Amazon says it guarantees refunds for items that don’t arrive.
Read more here.