eBay faces investigation over breach

23 May 2014 Last updated at 12:17 By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter eBay is facing several investigations into its data breach The UK's information commissioner is working with European data authorities with a view to taking action against eBay over its recent data breach.

Three US states are also investigating the theft of names, email addresses and other personal data, which affected up to 145 million eBay customers.

The online marketplace has begun the process of notifying its customers about the need to reset passwords.

However some customers reported problems when attempting to do so.

EBay told the BBC that it was not aware of any technical problems with the password reset function on the site.

"The site is busy, but our secure password reset tool is working," a spokesman said.

The firm has been criticised for its slow reaction in informing customers about the theft of personal data.

"We are sending out millions of emails, and it will take some time. The process is certainly well under way," the firm told the BBC.

It warned though that its official password reset email contained no links and that customers should be wary of messages that did.

"Any email with links is a phishing attempt," it said.

Serious breach

Meanwhile the fallout from the data breach was beginning to kick in.

In the US, Connecticut, Florida and Illinois said they were conducting a joint investigation.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live, the UK's information commissioner said that the eBay breach was "very serious" but that outdated and complex data protection laws meant the ICO could not begin an immediate investigation.

He said the watchdog would have to first liaise with the Luxembourg data protection, where eBay has its European headquarters.

"There's millions of UK citizens affected by this, and we've been clear that we're monitoring it, but by taking the wrong action under the law now we risk invalidating any investigation," an ICO spokesman told the BBC when pressed on why the watchdog had not yet launched any action.

Identity theft

Questions are starting to be asked about how well eBay safeguarded its customers' data.

Hugh Boyes from the Institution of Engineering and Technology questioned why eBay stored so much data in the first place.

"The Information Commissioner makes the point that organisations should keep the minimum information necessary so why do eBay need to hold and store dates of birth and addresses?"

"As an occasional eBay user, I am concerned that not only have they lost my email, username and password, but according to their website the loss includes home address, phone number and date of birth.

"This is serious from an identity theft perspective. The only item they are missing is the mother's maiden name and they have sufficient information to impersonate an individual when dealing with many financial organisations."

Reports that large numbers of eBay customer details have begun appearing for sale in Pastebin - a site where hackers publicise their attacks - have been denied by eBay.

Lysa Myers, a security research at ESET agreed that the data was unlikely to have originated from the auction site.

"The users that are shown in the sample would represent an odd subset of users for an international company like eBay. And the price asked (1.45 Bitcoin) would seem to be astonishingly low for the data of 145 million users," she said.

"Even if the sample is not in fact from the eBay breach, it could potentially be data from another company's leak."

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Rosberg on pole after investigation

By Andrew Benson Chief F1 writer in Monaco Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has been cleared of wrongdoing over a controversial incident that sealed pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The German, fastest at the time, locked a wheel and went into the escape road at Mirabeau on his final lap.

The incident brought out caution flags, preventing his team-mate Lewis Hamilton from completing his own final lap and securing Rosberg's pole position.

Race stewards said they could find "no evidence of any offence".

Rosberg told BBC Sport before going to the stewards that he was "surprised" to be called to give evidence, adding: "They'll see in the data it is all very similar to the lap before and I just locked up the front tyre."

Asked if he was uncomfortable about the incident, Rosberg: "Of course I need to apologise for having ruined his lap. But that's the way it is."

The incident revived memories of an incident at Monaco in 2006, when Michael Schumacher deliberately parked his Ferrari at Rascasse to prevent Renault's Fernando Alonso, his title rival, from taking pole.

Hamilton is three points ahead of Rosberg in the championship heading into this race.

Hamilton said: "I found the time at the end and wasn't able to execute it so it wasn't a true showing of my true pace. But I should have known that was going to happen and done it the lap before."

Rosberg had been the quicker of the two drivers by 0.059 seconds on their first runs in final qualifying, and the incident came immediately after he was just over 0.1secs down on that lap at the first official timing point on his final run.

Hamilton was the next car on track, and had to slow down for yellow caution flags at Mirabeau.

The Englishman had been fractionally up on his previous time up that point, but the flags prevented any prospect of him beating Rosberg's time.

The incident has come during a weekend in which tensions between the two Mercedes drivers have been rising as a result of their close battle.

There have already been comparisons between this year and 1988-89, when McLaren team-mates Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost fell out while disputing two world titles.

Those battles ended in title-deciding collisions at the 1989 and 1990 Japanese Grands Prix, in the second of which Senna rammed Prost off the track at 160mph.

Asked whether his relationship with Rosberg was "even more like Senna and Prost now", Hamilton said after qualifying: "Essentially."

When it was suggested the two drivers would have to sit down and discuss the incident, Hamilton said: "I don't know if Senna and Prost sat down and talked it out. I quite like the way Senna dealt with it, so I'm going to take a page out of his book."

Mercedes bosses defended Rosberg, saying the incident was an innocent mistake.

Non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, a three-time F1 world champion, said: "If you look at it the way I look at it, he tried to go quicker, braked too late, the right front wheel locked, tried to go into the corner and not to crash he had to go left.

"These things can happen. They happen to a lot of other people but there's nothing wrong about it."

Lauda admitted the atmosphere between the two drivers was tense.

"I fully agree. I think there might be some more discussions later today or tomorrow morning, I agree this thing is building up over there, but from my point of view nothing wrong on Nico's side. Lewis was now four or five times quicker than Nico and now Nico's quicker, so what is wrong about that."

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen said of Rosberg's incident: "I saw he locked the wheel and ran wide but obviously I am not here to judge anybody and say what was true and what was not. He knows himself. Obviously it is hard to say was it a mistake or not. Everybody will have their own opinion about this."

Monaco qualifying result

Monaco Grand Prix full coverage details

Archive: Hamilton & Rosberg - best of friends

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