Mercado Libre, the largest online marketplace in Latin America, was reportedly hacked, and the data of some 300,000 users were compromised during the attack.

In a statement released on Monday, the e-commerce company said they detected that part of the source code of Mercado Libre had been subjected to "unauthorized access," Milenio reported.

The company noted that it has already activated its security protocols while conducting an extensive analysis of the attack.

Mercado Libre acknowledged that hackers had accessed the data of 300,000 users out of its 140 million unique active users on the platform.

But based on initial analysis, the company noted that it had not found any evidence that its infrastructure systems have been compromised or the user passwords, account balances, investments, financial or payment card information have been obtained.

A source familiar with the matter told Milenio that Mercado Libre is already checking for any information theft and the extent of the hacking and studying possible actions to safeguard the rest of the information. 

Company sources also told Efe that the company was still checking if the affected users were only from Mexico or another Latin American country where Mercado Libre operates. 

The sources added that for now, there is no certainty of the economic impact that this hacking event generated, both for companies and consumers. 

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Mercado Libre Hacked

According to Mercado Libre, the company is taking strict measures to prevent the same hacking incidents on its platform again.

Periodico AM reported that several media outlets said that Mercado Libre and Mercado Pago were hacked by LAPSUS$, a Latin American group that recently made headlines for hacking NVIDIA and Samsung.

There were also reports that LAPSUS$ claimed to have Mercado Libre's source code or at least a snippet of it in its possession and plans to make it public.

Hiram A. Camarillo, co-founder and director of Information Security at the cybersecurity firm Seekurity, noted that the cyberattackers were voting in specialized forums so that netizens could decide what should happen to the information.

The deadline for the said voting is reportedly on March 13, and that is when it will be known what would happen to the obtained information.

Mercado Libre in Latin America

Mercado Libre is considered to be the largest e-commerce company in Latin America. It currently operates in 13 countries.

According to New Relic, these countries include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The e-commerce platform provides buyers and sellers with an online trading environment that addresses cultural and geographic challenges.

The company is offering six merged e-commerce services such as MercadoLibre Marketplace, MercadoLibre Classifieds Service, and MercadoPago payments solution.

MercadoLibre Advertising program, MercadoShops online stores solution, and Mercado Envios shipping service are also among the company's list of services. More than one million users a month search for items, bid, purchase, and pay for them in Mercado Libre's platform.

The company was founded in 1999 and headquartered in Buenos Aires in Argentina. Mercado Libre was listed on NASDAQ after its initial public offering in 2007.

eBay is the largest common stock owner in Mercado Libre with 18.40 percent.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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