Business & Tech

Redwood City-Based Evernote's Customer Accounts Hacked

The company says it is resetting all of its 50 million users' passwords 'in an abundance of caution.'

Redwood City-based tech company Evernote issued a statement on its blog and to all 50 million of its customers Saturday warning that its network had been hacked.

Evernote, which offers several different apps including a digital note-taking service, said in the statement that the company's operations and security team had "discovered and blocked suspicious activity on the Evernote network that appears to have been a coordinated attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service."

Though the company said that it appears no stored customer content had been accessed, they cautioned that it was possible the hackers had been able to gain access to customer information such as usernames, e-mail addresses associated with Evernote accounts, and encrypted passwords.

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Though Evernote passwords are protected by one-way encryption, the company said it has decided to re-set all of its roughly 50 million customers' passwords, "in an abundance of caution."

"While our password encryption measures are robust, we are taking additional steps to ensure that your personal data remains secure," the statement said, speaking to its customers. "This means that, in an abundance of caution, we are requiring all users to reset their Evernote account passwords."

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The statement also commented that such security breaches are becoming more commonplace nowadays.

"As recent events with other large services have demonstrated, this type of activity is becoming more common. We take our responsibility to keep your data safe very seriously, and we’re constantly enhancing the security of our service infrastructure to protect Evernote and your content."

To help enhance one's digital safety, Evernote offered the following tips:

  • Avoid using simple passwords based on dictionary words
  • Never use the same password on multiple sites or services
  • Never click on ‘reset password’ requests in e-mails — instead go directly to the service

PATCH WANTS TO KNOW - Are you an Evernote customer? Or, have you ever been hacked with any other Web-based service or account? Tell us in the comments below.

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