· PayPal has acknowledged that its Vancouver-based online and mobile bill payment subsidiary, Tio Networks (TIO), suffered a data breach. The attack potentially exposed personal information of 1.6 million of its customer base, which covers Canada and the U.S.
· The announcement comes after PayPal suspended operations of Tio Networks on Nov. 10 “to protect customer data as part of an ongoing investigation of security vulnerabilities.” The examination revealed that vulnerabilities may have already been taken advantage of, with user information potentially compromised
· A review of TIO’s network had discovered customers’ personally identifiable information may have been compromised. A PayPal spokesman said that information possibly included customer names, addresses, Social Security numbers and login credentials. The breach purportedly happened on TIO Networks in July, before PayPal bought the company
· TIO Networks currently has about 14 million customer bill pay accounts for utilities and telecommunications
· There were no details of how many exposed accounts were Canadian customers. PayPal emphasized that its data is held separately from Tio Networks’ and was not affected
· Paypal is offering credit monitoring services to hopefully ameliorate the worst of potential problems that could hit as a result
Technology and Security 