The world's foremost Internet selling and buying website, eBay, could be heading toward a formal investigation by the government over security issues and practices within the company.
The probe comes just after some 145 million users were the victims of a major cyberattack that could have far-reaching implications.
According to reports, eBay is to answer government questions and inquiries over how hackers were able to bypass security apparatuses and gain personal information from users. The government apparently is looking into the security measures that were installed before the attack took place.
While 145 million users have been reported as possibly being affected, according to eBay public information, the company has only 128 million users.
Although eBay discovered the breach this month and urged users to change their passwords this week, it is unlikely that passwords were compromised as the hackers accessed accounts through encrypted form. The security attack took place in late February and early March, where names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth were apparently stolen.
"The magnitude of the reported eBay data breach could be of historic proportions, and my office is part of a group of other attorneys general in the country investigating the matter," Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. "We must do everything in our power to protect consumers' personal information."
While eBay has not spoken publicly in recent days about the incident and subsequent security moves, it did say that no financial information has thus far been compromised as a result of the breach.
Representatives from the company, seemingly defiant after the media attention, have said they will not be discussing the security situation any further. This is largely the result of the potential danger that a formal government investigation entails. There is no word on whether criminal charges could be brought against the company.
Three states -- Illinois, Connecticut and Florida -- have announced proceedings for an investigation, and it appears in a number of reports that eBay's home state of California could be joining the fray in the near future. That could spell bad news for the San Jose-based company, with California having a massive amount of clout in technology affairs due to Silicon Valley.
"What's surprising is the sheer number of personal accounts that are involved," said Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, whose state has about 660,000 active eBay users. "This isn't 10 accounts at your local five-and-dime. This is tens of millions of accounts."
