The security of LivingSocial’s computer systems was breached through a cyber attack. Through their shenanigans, perpetrators were able to gain access to LivingSocial’s customer data. Apparently, the information of about 50 million customers was affected by the attack. Authorities were notified and they are actively looking into the case, it’s being reported.
Besides names and email addresses, dates of birth, and even some encrypted (hashed and salted) passwords were compromised in the attack. News outlets circulated a memo sent by company brass. In the memo, Tim O’Shaughnessy, LivingSocial’s CEO, said, “We recently experienced a cyber attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers,” adding, “We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.”
So far it’s being assumed that no credit card or other financial information belonging to customers was accessed. LivingSocial is taking pains to reassure its users that the company is committed to making their site and services safe, and that efforts are underway to foil future attacks.
Customers whose information was accessed were asked create new account passwords. Some good news is that the attack did not affect the Facebook information of users who access LivingSocial through Facebook Connect.
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