Amid Widespread Data Breaches in China, E-Commerce Companies Reassure Users

This week has been absolutely filled with hacking news from China as CSDN, Tianya, Netease, and 360Buy were among the major internet entities which we learned have fallen victim to data breaches. And there were more reports swirling last night that two of China’s e-commerce giants had experienced data leaks as well.

It was reported that Alibaba’s online payment system Alipay reportedly experienced a leak that affected 15 to 25 million user accounts. To find out more, we got in touch with a representative who conveyed the company’s statement on the matter last night:

Alipay employs rigorous information security measures to ensure the safety of our users’ private information and funds; we do not believe this list of emails originated from any breach of Alipay data or hacking activities. [1]

There was an earlier statement on the Alipay Weibo account, where the company responded to some inquiries. It asserts that passwords and funds are still secure. Of course, the emails in question could theoretically be cross-referenced against other data out there, so users would be wise not to use the same passwords across multiple services, which is an advisable personal security practice at all times.

In addition, Dangdang (NYSE:DANG), fresh off launching its new e-book platform, is said to have issued a statement yesterday regarding reports that the information of 12 million users had been leaked. According to Marbridge Consulting, the company asserts that the only ‘a small fraction’ of that data belongs to Dangdang users and that the police have been notified regarding the matter.