StubHub users beware! Over 1,000 accounts hacked!

Hackers were able to gain access to StubHub through other breaches and existing malware

You know, it's getting to the point now where I really am starting to think twice every time I buy something online. That's how bad this situation is getting. 

In what may be the least shocking news I've heard in months, yet another well-known, supposedly secure website has been hacked, with password and login information. 

This time the victim was StubHub, the ticket reselling service owned by eBay. Using data breaches at other websites, and malware on the customers' computers, hackers were able to gain access to over 1,000 accounts and buy tickets, the Associated Press reported late Tuesday. That means that Stubhub's servers were not breached, which likely accounts for low number of victims in this case.

The incident occurred last year, and the affected customers have already been given refunds and have been helped changing their passwords.

It's also possible that the hackers got more information from these accounts, such as credit card numbers, but the company is, so far, not releasing that information.

Arrests in the case are expected to be announced on Wednesday, with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. holding a news conference with London and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials.

This latest incident is especially bad news for eBay, who bought StubHub for $310 million back in 2007. That is because eBay was the victim of an enormous breach earlier this year, in which hackers were able to see the name, encrypted password, email address, physical address, phone number and date of birth of up to 145 million eBay customers. 

The incident was so potentially harmful that at least three states said they wanted to probe how exactly such a massive breach could occur. Now another one of its site was hit, most likely with information gleamed from that first attack.

Stubhub and eBay are just the latest websites that most people likely thought were secure but were still breached. Dating back to last year, the list of other companies to be hacked includes Twitter, Facebook,Zendesk, Apple, Microsoft, Evernote, Snapchat, Skype  and Bitly. 

That is not to mention the retail stores that were also hit, including Target, which may have affected 70 million customers who shopped there; Neiman Marcus, whose breach could have affected 1.1 million cards potentially affected, with 2,400 already being used fraudulently; and Michaels, which put 3 million cards at risk.

In January, the FBI released a report that said that a total of  20 cases of retailers being hacking had occurred in the past year.

I have used StubHub on a number of occasions, and have always found their service to be extremely reliable. I have actually convinced a few people I know to use the site, even though they were somewhat weary about people potentially selling them fake tickets. What breaches like this really do is make people like me have second thoughts about not only telling others to use it, but about using it again myself.

VatorNews has reached out to Stubhub for additional comment. We will update if we learn more. 

(Image source: nextnature.net)