eBay's morning just went from bad to worse. The e-commerce site confirmed Wednesday that its corporate network was hacked and a database with users' passwords was compromised. While eBay says there is no evidence that users' financial information was accessed in the hack, the company is telling all users to change their passwords.
eBay contacted CNET after this story was initially published, saying it discovered "recently" that it was a victim of "a cyber attack on our corporate information network, which compromised a database containing eBay user passwords." The company's spokesperson told CNET there is "no evidence that any financial information was accessed or compromised."
The statement follows an odd stream of events this morning when eBay-owned PayPal posted a blog entitled "eBay, Inc. to Ask All eBay users to Change Passwords." The blog post included nothing but the title, but quickly hit the Web after it was retweeted dozens of times. The blog post was then taken down from PayPal's site, causing even more confusion for users of the online auction house.
eBay has since posted information about the hack on its official blog. The company will ask all users to change their passwords starting later on Wednesday.
eBay shares are down 1.73 percent, or 90 cents, to $51.06, following news of the hack.
"After conducting extensive tests on its networks, the company said it has no evidence of the compromise resulting in unauthorized activity for eBay users, and no evidence of any unauthorized access to financial or credit card information, which is stored separately in encrypted formats," eBay wrote in the post. "However, changing passwords is a best practice and will help enhance security for eBay users."The database, which eBay said was compromised in late February and early March, held eBay customer's names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth. However, the company says users' financial information was not accessed.
eBay also tried to allay concerns of PayPal users who store credit card information on the service. Although eBay owns PayPal, the online auction site says that "PayPal data is stored separately on a secure network, and all PayPal financial information is encrypted."
eBay said it detected the hack two weeks ago and engaged in forensics activities to determine what database was compromised and what was stolen. The company narrowed down the attack to "a small number of employee login credentials" stolen by cyberattackers, which it said provided access to eBay's corporate network.
Starting later on Wednesday, eBay will use email, site updates, and "other marketing channels" to request its users change their passwords. The company also encouraged its users to change the passwords on any other sites they might use with the same log-in credentials. It even ended its blog post with a security tip: "The same password should never be used across multiple sites or accounts."
eBay's hacking should be taken seriously. The e-commerce site has 128 million active users around the world. While the company has acknowledged that it will ask ever user to change their password, eBay hasn't said how many customers might have had information stolen.
With Heartbleed wreaking havoc on the Web and an increasing number of major companies having their servers hacked and personal information leaked, Web security -- or lack thereof -- is becoming a huge concern for Web users. The eBay hack could prove to be the biggest security flaw to affect users since last year's Target data breach. That hack is believed to have impacted 110 million customers and left personal information -- including names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and debit and credit card data -- open to hackers.
CNET has contacted eBay for more information on the hack. We will update this story when we have more information.
Apple didn't forget about Dre. A video posted to Facebook seems to confirm reports that Apple is buying Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. If this happens, the deal means much more than headphones. Beats doesn't make CNET's list of best headphones, but the brand is extremely popular and has a new streaming service. Apple may bring in Beats boss Jimmy Iovine to boost the company's music muscle.
Newcomers to Netflix will be paying more to stream shows like House of Cards. The monthly fee jumps by $1 in the US, £1 in the UK and €1 in Europe. But current customers won't have to pay more for another two years.
Find fun in corruption with a new game that's hot on the iTunes charts.Make It Rain: The Love of Money is a strange satire on our obsession with wealth, and people are spending real world money to buy virtual money to bribe the FBI. (I'm sure Dr. Dre won't need an app to make it rain after the Beats deal goes through.)
CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under three minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for a breakdown of the big stories, hot devices, new apps, and what's ahead. Subscribe to the podcast via the links below.
Apple is reportedly in talks to acquire Beats Electronics, the high-end-headphone maker co-founded by hip-hop artist Dr. Dre, in a deal worth $3.2 billion, according to the Financial Times.
The deal could be announced as early as next week, the report says, but has yet to be finalized and could still fail to materialize pending discussions between the two companies.
Beyond its line of bass-boosting ear pieces, Beats has also broken into the competitive market for subscription streaming-services, with a mobile offering that, unlike Apple's iTunes and iTunes Radio, offers ad-free, on-demand music listening for about $10 per month. If the deal goes through, Apple will acquire the subscription business alongside Beats' hardware division, with the Beats management team reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the FT adds.
Beats declined to comment for this story. CNET has also contacted Apple and will update this story when we hear back.
While Apple has long had a favorable relationship with Beats -- the Dre-branded headphone line is featured prominently in both its physical Apple stores and the accessory section of its online store -- the crux of the deal may prove to be Beats Music.
Beats' streaming service could become a central part of Apple's music strategy, following the launch of its online radio service, iTunes Radio, last year. Beats Music debuted with a powerful billing and marketing partnership with AT&T and it has reportedly been growing quickly. Though the company has yet to disclose hard and fast subscriber numbers, industry estimates peg the total at about 200,000.
Displays for the 9.7-inch iPad (L) are out-shipping the Mini.Apple
The large iPad is back in vogue.
Totals for iPad Mini (7.9-inch) display shipments in the first quarter came to just more than 6 million, according to a report from ZDNet Korea (Korean language), via an English-language BrightWire Newsreport.
That's less than 8.4 million logged for the 9.7-inch iPad models in the same period, according to an earlier ZDNet Asia report.
9.7-inch iPad with Retina display. Samsung became the largest display supplier to Apple in the first quarter, according to DisplaySearchApple
Apple just can't seem to shake Samsung.
Despite the two companies' bitter legal battles, Samsung became the largest supplier of iPad displays in the first quarter, according to DisplaySearch.
The market researcher said Samsung Display reclaimed its position as the top iPad display panel supplier, shipping 5.2 million units of 9.7-inch panels with a resolution of 2,048x1,536, accounting for 62 percent of total shipments of that display size and resolution, according to a reportfrom BrightWire News, which cited a ZDNet Asia (Korean language) report.
The displays with those specifications are used by Apple for the iPad Air and iPad with Retina display.
LG Display, also a major display supplier to Apple, saw its share of that display size/resolution plunge to 38 percent in the first quarter from about 61 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.
It should be also noted that Samsung is not out of the running as a future purveyor of processors to Apple, despite Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC's) expected participation as a supplier to Apple of the next-generation A series processor.
Apple could still source the next-gen so-called A8 processor from Samsung as well as processors beyond the A8, according to VLSI Research.
Updated Everything you need to know about the upcoming OS
Page 1 of 2iOS 8 release date, news and rumors
What has iOS 8 got in store for us?
iOS 7.1 has only just launched
but already we're itching for iOS 8 and we're not alone, as rumors of
what the new version of Apple's OS might include have started
circulating.
Enough have dropped for us to start to get
an idea of what form iOS 8 might take, so without further ado here's
what we've heard so far.
Release date
New
versions of iOS tend to get announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers
Conference (WWDC) and there's been no suggestion that iOS 8 will break
the trend. This year's WWDC 2014 has been confirmed as kicking off on
June 2, which is when we anticipate the keynote speech will be.
However,
while iOS 8 will likely be announced then it probably won't actually
launch until later in the year, making its debut on the iPhone 6. Again, this is all based on Apple's past iOS launches.
Cut to the chase What is it? The next iteration of Apple's mobile platform When is it out? Probably sometime in September 2014 What will it cost? iOS 8 will be a free download
Healthbook
Apple,
like Samsung, seems to be pushing the health and fitness capabilities
of its products and the next step of that is likely to come with iOS 8.
According to unnamed sources who spoke to 9 to 5 Mac,
iOS 8 will come with a new app dubbed Healthbook. Supposedly it will
have a similar interface to Passbook, but will track steps taken,
distance travelled, calories burned and weight loss. So in other words it's doing the same job as stand alone fitness trackers like the FitBit Force, which makes sense since Apple already built an M7 motion co-processor into the iPhone 5S to track just those sorts of things, so it might as well make the most of it.
However apparently it will also go way beyond that
and track hydration levels, blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar,
nutrition information and respiratory rate, taking it a step beyond
existing fitness trackers. 9to5mac has even recreated some images of how
the app will supposedly look. Obviously
no existing Apple hardware has the relevant sensors to track most of
that stuff, but there's been talk recently that the iPhone 6 might have an array of new sensors, plus some of it may rely on Apple's unconfirmed iWatch.
Apple Maps
Apple Maps has had a bit of a tough time so far. Its launch was as far from smooth as possible and while it's no longer putting train stations in the middle of the sea it still lags some way behind Google's offering.
That could be about to change though, as 9 to 5 Mac claims to have spoken to "sources briefed on the plans"
and learned that public transport directions for trains, subways and
buses will be added to Maps, initially for major US cities, with a wider
roll out likely to follow.
The same sources also claim
that it will be more accurate than it is now and new points of interest
and labels will be added for things like stations and airports. The
appearance of the app has apparently been improved too, making streets
more visible. Supposedly Apple is also working on an augmented reality
feature, which will allow you to see points of interest on your camera
viewfinder, though it's thought that this feature won't make it out in
time for iOS 8.
Late last year Apple patented some major new ideas for Maps, which would add a whole new level of interactivity beyond even what's currently rumored.
It
would allow users to tap a road for example and see information
relevant to just that road, such as any junctions on it, or to tap a
restaurant and get a menu.
This functionality might be
some way off yet, if it emerges at all, but we live in hope that it
might make an appearance in iOS 8.
Siri
Apple could hardly release a new version of iOS without updating everyone's favourite personal assistant.
According to tech site The Information,
Apple wants Siri to be able to interface with third party apps.
Currently it's compatible with a number of popular third party apps, but
only because Apple worked directly with the developers to add the
functionality. It's rumored that Shazam
might be embedded right into the new version of Siri, allowing you to
verbally ask Siri what song is currently playing without having to open
the Shazam app.
In future any and all app developers
might be able to make their apps compatible with Siri without Apple's
help, which would vastly increase Siri's usefulness, allowing you for
example to use third party messaging apps and calendars to send messages
and set reminders.
There's also talk that Siri might be
able to contextually launch specific apps in future, so for example if
you start jogging it might automatically launch RunKeeper, rather than
you having to ask it to.
iTunes Radio and HD audio
Apple looks to be putting more weight behind iTunes Radio, if sources speaking to 9 to 5 Mac are to be believed. The sources claim that it will be given a separate app for iOS 8, as currently it's part of the Music app. Supposedly
other than becoming its own app it's going to remain exactly as it is
now, which isn't so surprising as it only launched last year, but by
giving iTunes Radio its own app it will be more noticeable to users and
better positioned to take on other streaming services like Spotify.
Alongside that it's looking like we might get HD audio, with rumors swirling that Apple is preparing the feature for iOS 8.
If true it would mean new headphones and lightning cables would be
required to make use of it. We can't help but wonder if this ties into
the Beats buyout Apple might be working on.
Preview and Text Edit
We recently got our first glimpse of what might be iOS 8. Based on the image it unsurprisingly looks a lot like iOS 7, albeit with a few new apps on board.
There's
an icon for the aforementioned Healthbook and one for Tips, which is
likely a user guide, but there are also Preview and Text Edit icons. If
those names sound familiar it's because they're existing pieces of
software for OS X, but now seemingly iOS is getting its own versions.
However
while the Mac versions are used to edit PDF's, images and text files,
the iOS versions are apparently optimized to simply let you view any
such documents that you have stored in iCloud.
It's questionable how real this screenshot even is, 9to5Mac
claims to have confirmed its veracity with several sources, yet it
would be easy to fake, especially as the Text Edit and Preview icons are
identical to their Mac counterparts.
iWatch connection?
There are still a multitude of rumors doing the rounds regarding the Apple iWatch, and with iOS 8 we could see functionality for a smartwatch built into the ecosystem.
A screenshot appeared on a Chinese social network allegedly showing the iOS 8 interface and a new app called "Watch Utility." Will iOS 8 support an iWatch? (credit: @zmeric)While
we're not convinced of the screenshot's authenticity, it certainly does
provide food for thought as the wearable market continues to develop
and companies such as Samsung and Sony look to include such devices in
their mobile operating systems.
The Watch Utility app has also appeared in a series of leaked images from Phone Arena, claiming to show iOS 8 running on an iPhone 5S.
As
well as the Watch Utility app, the leak also shows Healthbook, iTunes
Radio and other mooted applications such as Preview, TextEdit and Tips.
App updates
There are whispers of various minor updates
to a number of apps. According to an unnamed source the Notification
Center is getting streamlined for iOS 8. The update completely removes
the "Missed" tab, so everything can be found on either "Today" or "All".
The
Messages app is apparently having a new option added, to allow you to
automatically delete threads after a certain period of time and Voice
Memos may be getting a new button arrangement.
Apple is also supposedly removing the requirement for a Lightning cord when using CarPlay, allowing it to work wirelessly instead.
Apps
may also be able to better communicate thanks to a new developer API
which is rumored to be in testing. Known as an "XPC" service, the API
would allow apps to share data, which among other things would hopefully
make it easy to keep files synced up across different apps.
Split-screen apps
One iPad specific iOS 8 update that we've now got wind of is the ability to have two apps running side by side,
split-screen on Apple's tablet. The screen is certainly big enough so
it's a feature that makes sense, especially as Microsoft's Surface
already has that ability.
Like so many other iOS 8 rumors
this one comes from sources speaking to 9to5Mac and they go one further
by claiming that the apps may be able to interact with one another. So
for example you might be able to drag an image from one app to another,
which would certainly make it more viable as a productivity focussed
device.
Apparently the split-screen feature will only work in landscape mode and it's not clear whether it will be available on the iPad mini range or just the full sized models.
Goodbye Game Center
While
there are a lot of new things rumored for iOS 8 we might also be losing
some things. Apple's Game Center app is rumoured to be for the chopping
block according to 9to5Mac, with the functionality being moved directly into games themselves.
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