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Amazon keeps tight-lipped about pre-Black Friday security incident

Amazon “fixed the issue” and has emailed customers who may have been affected, though the company declined to say how many users may have been involved. The news came just days before the big Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping spikes.
Amazon told some customers Wednesday that a technical problem may have resulted in their information being exposed. (Getty Images)

Amazon informed some customers about a security incident Wednesday that resulted in the exposure of their names and email addresses, a company spokesman confirmed to CyberScoop.

Amazon “fixed the issue” and has emailed customers who may have been affected, though the company declined to say how many users’ information may have been involved. The incident was not a breach of Amazon.com, the company said.

The news came just days before users from throughout the world will log onto the e-commerce site for Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases.

“It would seem Amazon has some … security issues to resolve,” one user on Amazon’s seller forum complained Wednesday. “With such a vague email from Amazon who knows how our information was leaked and to whom.”

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Amazon previously fired an employee who allegedly shared customer email addresses with a third-party seller, Gizmodo reported in October. But that issue does not appear to have been limited to a single employee. Before dismissing that employee Amazon also investigated whether its workers were leaking data in exchange for bribes, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Social media users also noticed that the email alerting customers to the latest incident Wednesday appeared to bring its own security risks.

Jeff Stone

Written by Jeff Stone

Jeff Stone is the editor-in-chief of CyberScoop, with a special interest in cybercrime, disinformation and the U.S. justice system. He previously worked as an editor at the Wall Street Journal, and covered technology policy for sites including the Christian Science Monitor and the International Business Times.

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