Alibaba Group Details

Alibaba Group

Hangzhou, China • employees • Retail

Industry

Retail

Security Incidents

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, branded as Alibaba, is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology.

Security Incidents

Alibaba Group Breach of Nov 2019

Severity Score

Low to Moderate

Type

Data Breach

Summary

In November 2019, Alibaba Group experienced a significant data breach when a developer working for an affiliate company illegally scraped customer data from the Taobao e-commerce platform. The threat actor, who was later arrested, managed to collect over 1.1 billion pieces of user information, including usernames, phone numbers, and customer comments, over an eight-month period. The breach was discovered when unusual data access patterns were detected, prompting an internal investigation. Alibaba assured that no sensitive financial information was compromised and that the incident did not affe...
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Severity

The Alibaba Group cyber security incident in November 2019 was significant as a Chinese software developer trawled Alibaba's Taobao site for 8 months, resulting in the collection of over 1.1 billion pieces of user information, including user IDs, mobile-phone numbers, and customer comments. This breach highlighted vulnerabilities in Alibaba's security measures and raised concerns about data privacy and protection.

Impact

The impact of the Alibaba Group cyber security incident in November 2019 was extensive, with over 1.1 billion pieces of user information being exposed due to web scraping activities conducted by the software developer. This breach compromised the privacy and security of a large number of Alibaba's customers, potentially leading to identity theft, fraud, and other cybercrimes.