A number of Amazon users from the United States, Europe, and other regions are receiving emails about a data leak that occurred recently. Beta News reports A technical error caused the names and emails of a number of users to be visible publicly. Currently, the only way to know if you have been affected is by checking your email to see if you received any official communication from the e-commerce company. All users who were affected have been connected with, and if you are one of them, you will have a message from Amazon in your inbox.
Amazon has not revealed details about the data leak and users who had their identities leaked may be at risk to phishing attacks. The e-commerce company revealed that the issue was caused by a technical error and neither its systems or its website was breached. The issue has been fixed, and all affected users have been notified.
Amazon's legit been sending out notices saying sorry we exposed your email address. Seems likely related to this https://t.co/21cRB2dHTk… Besides the brevity, what's giving people pause is they sign the email https://t.co/KDiteRFaeR Why cap the "a" and why no https://? Strange pic.twitter.com/mwty3GmCN1
— briankrebs (@briankrebs) November 21, 2018
The number of users affected is unknown, and it seems like users all over the world were affected. According to the internet forum posts, only consumer accounts were affected and not business/seller accounts on the platform. Passwords, financial data, and other sensitive information were not displayed by the company, and no action needs to be taken.
The incident does not seem to be linked to the company’s recent controversy that involved customer service professionals leaking user data to users. Many sellers on the platform were getting in touch with Amazon employees to manipulate review ratings and get access to user data which led to the company firing a number of employees. Since the dealings between sellers and employees were uncovered, the company has restricted data access from employees, and new systems are in place for auditing.
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