By E-Mailing Hacking Victims, EBay Opens Users Up to More Risk of Attack

After hackers stole e-mail addresses and other user data from EBay's network, the company announced today that it would e-mail users to suggest they change their passwords. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

The problem with this approach is that the hours immediately following a breach are prime time for hackers. Cyber-criminals are consummate opportunists. They scrutinize the news looking for ways to craft fraudulent and timely messages to trick people into clicking on them. The millions of EBay users who may have caught wind of the breach after seeing a headline today are more likely to fall for an e-mail scam prompting them to click a link and input their log-in information. A similar technique was used by Chinese military officers to hack into U.S. companies, showing that in cyber-security, people are their own worst enemies.