LivingSocial Website Hacked Into, Affecting Up To 50 Million Customers
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The popular deal-of-the-day website, LivingSocial, was hacked into affecting up to 50 million customers, the company said Friday.
The massive cyber-attack to its computer systems resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data, according to authorities.
LivingSocial sent out an email to more than 50 million customers whose data was possibly affected by the attack.
"The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords -- technically 'hashed' and 'salted' passwords. We never store passwords in plain text," CEO of LivingSocial, Tim O'Shaughnessy, stated in the email.
The database that stores customer credit card information and merchants' financial and banking information was not accessed or affected, according to the company.
"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."
"Please note that LivingSocial will never ask you directly for personal or account information in an email. We will always direct you to the LivingSocial website – and require you to login – before making any changes to your account. Please disregard any emails claiming to be from LivingSocial that request such information or direct you to a different website that asks for such information," O'Shaughnessy said.
The company is working with law enforcement to investigate the situation.
