Rick Orloff spent 6 years at Apple before joining eBay last August to head security for its Marketplaces business. The hiring followed eBay’s security breach in which criminals gained unauthorized access to its corporate network and user data. The Associated Press recently interviewed Orloff about his priorities at eBay regarding security.
The top priority, Orloff said, was to protect customer data. He also added some warnings, telling the AP that people’s most important password is their email password. “Because if a hacker can get into your email account they can go to your bank website and request a password reset. So without even knowing what your bank password is, they can sit in your inbox ask for a password reset from your bank, then they can go to the financial institution and reset the password, and now they have control.”
He also warned of phishing emails in which scammers try to trick people into taking certain actions that make their accounts vulnerable.
There are three kinds of hackers, he told the AP: government sanctioned attacks that are meant as a message; those looking for money; and activists who try to publish a message.
Orloff also said these days, companies are becoming more collaborative with one another relative to threat information. They don’t exchange data about their customers, but they do share information about cyber threats. “If we see an attack coming from this entity and this region, companies are sharing that information now as opposed to everyone being siloed.”
You can read the full interview on Redding.com.
