Amazon resets passwords of certain customers in danger of having the information swiped

With Amazon in the midst of a Black Friday sale that started last week, a report published today says that the online retailer has emailed some customers, alerting them that their password might have "been compromised." Amazon has reportedly force-reset the password on these accounts.  In the email Amazon sent out, it said that the customers affected might have their password "improperly stored" on a device (like a phone or tablet) or "transmitted" to Amazon in such a way that it was left unprotected. Alluding to the force-reset, Amazon told the customers who received the email that "We have corrected the issue to prevent this exposure."

Amazon also made it clear that it didn't believe that the passwords were obtained by a third party. The force-reset was done out of an "abundance of caution," the online retailer said. Last week, the company launched two-factor authentication for its U.S. customers visiting the Amazon.com website. But this does not cover the mobile version of the site. You can request that your mobile browser open the desktop version of Amazon.com if you want to use the two-factor authentication to sign-in.


While Amazon has not issued a statement to the media regarding the issue, you might want to take a few minutes to change your password just in case. The exact number of customers affected by the issue is unknown.

source: ZDNet