Sketchy offers on eBay and different on-line marketplaces occur on a regular basis. Encountering counterfeit, stolen, damaged, or falsely marketed items offered by third events is not shocking, however discovering one thing that was stolen from you is.
That is reportedly what occurred to an worker on the software program firm SAP. In keeping with a report from The Register on Wednesday, the worker discovered one in all 4 SSDs lately stolen from SAP knowledge facilities in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on the market on eBay. In keeping with unnamed “sources near the incident,” the system was loaded with private info for dozens of staff.
“One of many disks later turned up on eBay and was purchased by an SAP worker. They had been in a position to determine that it belonged to SAP. The disk contained private data of 100 or extra SAP staff,” The Register reported.
The information facilities that held the lifted SSDs lacked “bodily checks,” The Register mentioned, permitting somebody to maneuver the gadgets from a safe location to a less-secure constructing elsewhere on campus, The Register’s sources claimed.
SAP is investigating the state of affairs now and reportedly nonetheless does not know the place the opposite three SSDs are. The Register claimed that SAP European knowledge facilities had endured 5 burglaries over the previous two years.
Ars Technica reached out to SAP concerning the report and acquired this assertion, which The Register additionally acquired:
“SAP takes knowledge safety very significantly. Please perceive that whereas we don’t touch upon inside investigations, we are able to affirm we at the moment haven’t any proof suggesting that confidential buyer knowledge or PII [personal identifiable information] has been taken from the corporate through these disks or in any other case.”
It is unclear how the worker discovered the storage system on eBay, knew it belonged to SAP, and confirmed this. It is doable the worker was looking out on eBay with the intent of discovering the stolen property and easily obtained fortunate.
Falling off a truck and onto the Web
On-line marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart are hampered in figuring out and blocking questionable exercise as a result of sellers are nameless and have few necessities to make use of these platforms. And the retail giants’ incapability to trace or take away sufficient shady sellers has meant criminals—from people to organized teams—revenue from stolen property through third-party marketplaces.
In SAP’s case, eBay has made headlines numerous occasions as a result of stolen items are offered on its web site. Within the tech realm, there have been latest reviews of stolen Tesla automotive computer systems with private knowledge promoting there, for instance, and a criminal offense ring accused of promoting over $12 million in electronics and printer cartridges. Not even the feds are resistant to seeing their boosted gear listed on the public sale web site. In 2008, for instance, the US Authorities Accountability Workplace detailed how navy gadgets had been offered on eBay [PDF].
eBay’s vendor coverage prohibits promoting stolen property and says the corporate “will work with regulation enforcement in any makes an attempt to promote stolen property on eBay.” Its web site hyperlinks to a State of California Division of Justice web site for reporting organized retail crimes, and there is additionally an eBay Safety Middle web page for reporting suspicious eBay exercise to regulation enforcement.
Ars Technica requested eBay about its present ways to forestall stolen gadgets from being listed on the positioning, and a spokesperson mentioned the corporate has “zero tolerance for prison exercise” and helps “prison prosecutions in opposition to those that attempt to use our platform to promote stolen items.”
The rep additionally pointed to eBay’s Proact crew, which launched in 2007 and works with 70 retailers to determine probably fraudulent sellers for referral to regulation enforcement.
However how do folks repeatedly get away with utilizing eBay as a black marketplace for stolen gadgets? And contemplating how straightforward it’s to promote something on-line, can boosted items actually be eradicated from eBay?
