Cyber Attack on Amazon's Zappos; 24 Million Customers Could Be Affected

Zappos.com, the popular 12-year-old online shoe retailer owned by Amazon.com, has had its internal network hacked by a cyber attacker. Zappos chief executive Tony Hsieh sent an e-mail to employees informing them that the company will notify more than 24 million customers that some of their personal information may have been tapped into by an intruder.

Some of the information the attacker may have accessed include customers' names, shipping and e-mail addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of their credit card numbers.

In the e-mail, Hsieh says "the one saving grace is that the database that stores our customers' critical credit card and payment data was not affected or accessed."

Whatever the case, the company fully expects to get hit with a blizzard of customer calls, and, for that reason, is shutting down its phone system for fear it will become overloaded, in favor of an e-mail-only response.

The hacker, according to Fox Business news, apparently gained access to the system through a server in Kentucky. Zappos says it is cooperating with law enforcement and intends to launch and "exhaustive investigation."

In the interim, the company is telling customers to change their passwords.

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