50 Million Emails, Names, Encrypted Passwords Leaked in LivingSocial Hacking Ordeal

LivingSocial, one of the largest daily deals company, only second to Groupon, has succumb to a hacking incident that reportedly leaked 50 million emails, names, and encrypted passwords.

At the hands of mischievous hackers, LivingSocial was attacked by hackers who have yet to be identified. LivingSocial says that the database containing customer credit card information along with a separate database with merchant info was affected in the attack.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time we have witnessed a large online company to capitulate to a hacker attack where customer data was compromised. There have been many other incidents that we have reported on in the past where they should have served as a wake-up call to others to take precautionary measures to protect their customer information.

After the attack, LivingSocial released a statement basically claiming that they will improve their efforts to ensure the security of their customer information. They wrote, "The security of our customer and merchant information is our priority. We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future."

For now, LivingSocial is notifying affected users through email and will suspend phone support until a later date possibly well-after this potential disaster is behind them. They have also advised all customers to change their passwords as soon as possible.

In today's crazed Internet-driven society, we get caught up with a false sense of security because our personal information probably has never been compromised to our own knowledge. It is that type of complacency that leads hackers to finding ways to over-take security measures put in place to protect your data on various online databases and sites.

Even though no online site or company is 100% secure from hacker attacks, each company has a responsibility to their customers to protect personal information to the best of their abilities. It is not to say LivingSocial was lacking the necessary security walls to block the recent attack, it is just a frightening reality everyone faces and must take head-on now or suffer the grave consequences later.