Amazon US and UK was hit with a data breach earlier this week, something that is bound to raise the alarm bells for its users across the globe.
The leading shopping website has confirmed to the media that user details, like names and email addresses, were leaked on the website. This is a major issue reported by the company, which has reached out to the affected users via email.
This incident of data leak is likely to cause panic among users in India as well, where the company caters to millions of customers via its Prime Video, Prime Music and shopping catalogue.
While the Jeff Bezos-owned online giant has refused to share the actual details of how many users have been affected by the leak, according to The Guardian, this is the latest data leak incident to hit the industry, after Google and Facebook reported theirs few months back.
The data breach was reported just a few days before Black Friday, and security experts believe that users in India need to be wary of this incident. In a ET Tech report, Amazon has been quoted saying, “We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted.”
The report further quotes cyber experts, who believe that email IDs exposed are a threat for the users, making them prone to malware and phishing attacks.
In this day and age of rampant digital consumption, it is vital for users on the internet to be vigilant about their activities, and not entertain spam or suspicious mails.
Amazon has over 150 million users across its Prime catalogue in India, as of September 2018. More users are likely to be added withthe introduction of localised products like Amazon Prime Video and shopping app in Hindi.
Amazon also sells smart speakers like Echo, e-reading devices like Kindle, all of which work with a unified Amazon ID. User details of such accounts falling into the wrong hands can have disastrous consequences.
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