Image Source: The Verge

BY MADISON MACK

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

Zappos is joining the ranks of Sony, Gawker and Citigroup. The company is the latest victim of a major cyber attack. ABC reports.

“Zappos says the hackers broke into its internal network through a company server in Kentucky. Though no complete credit card numbers were taken, the last four digits of some cards, they may have been lifted. Names, phone numbers, addresses, they may all be at risk.”  

Zappos already voided and reset all passwords for its 24 million customers and is urging them to create new passwords as soon as possible. SlashGear says, the easiest way to keep yourself secure in this type of situation is to use a different password for each site you visit.

“If you’ve got an eBay account, an account for your online bank account, and an account for Zappos, you need, need, NEED to have a different password for each of them. What you do when you keep the same password for each of these sites is to open yourself up to a MUCH wider array of hackers than if you change your password for each.”

In an interview with ZDNet a cybersecurity expert explains what a hacker can do with personal information.

“So if you suddenly had names, last four digits and passwords, you would have a real treasure trove … Then the most logical attack is not phishing, it is attacking those accounts where the user already does business.”

That expert said hackers can basically impersonate the person or business with the information they have. And VentureBeat notes – as far as cyber attacks go, Zappos got the light end.

“ … things certainly could have been much worse for Zappos. Sony’s PlayStation Network hack, for example, compromised 12.3 million users’ credit cards and led to downtime of almost a month. Despite the breach, Zappos will continue running as normal.”

The company is asking customers to contact them via email and has temporally turned off its phones to deal with the influx of traffic. And Sophos’ Naked Security Blog points out, Zappos is known for its customer service.

“Although many may find the decision to turn off the telephones hard to swallow … it appears that the company is attempting to assist as many customers as quickly as possible … It's certainly an ugly situation - and if nothing else, the security breach underlines the damage that can be done to a company's brand by an attack.”

An investigation is underway. And if you need to change your password, follow the link in our transcript section.