Amazon Resets Passwords for Users Out of Caution
Over the past few weeks, users with Amazon accounts have been receiving emails indicating that their Amazon password has changed.
In fact, when you read the email, Amazon prompts end users to go Amazon.com, and to request a new password for their user account. Regardless if you use AWS’s cloud services or the ecommerce platform, your Amazon account can potentially give someone a tremendous amount of control over your daily life.
With the busiest shopping season of the year descending upon us, it’s likely that Amazon is just taking extra precautions in order to beef up the security around the ecommerce platform. However, if you read the email a bit more closely, you can find additional details that may be of some importance to you.
“At Amazon we take your security and privacy very seriously. As part of our routine monitoring, we discovered a list of email address and password sets posted online. While the list was not Amazon-related, we know that many customers reuse their passwords on several websites. We believe your email address and password set was on that list. So we have taken the precaution of resetting your Amazon.com password. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused but felt that it was necessary to help protect you and your Amazon account,” the email said.
Amazon did not provide any additional specifics on an alleged leak that it found. There’s no data on what was exactly found, when the data was originally published nor has Amazon mentioned the origin of the leaked data. It’s important to note the bold text in the quote above, indicating that Amazon’s systems have not been compromised in anyway.
So if you try to login to your Amazon account and it doesn’t work. Look for an email in your account entitled “Your Amazon.com password has been changed” and follow the instructions. You may be prompted to setup two factor authentication, which provides additional security over your Amazon accounts.
It sounds like Amazon’s security team went above and beyond in order to help out Amazon users achieve maximum security over the holiday shopping season. With holiday shoppers expected over $800 this year on gifts, it is imperative to ensure the best security practices when using Amazon.com.
