APRIL 26, 2013 Sign Up For Komando Newsletters Read more online Join the club
Protect your online accounts after major hack
Amazon-owned daily deals site LivingSocial has suffered a massive security breach. Names, emails, birth dates and password information for an estimated 50 million users were stolen!
If you use the LivingSocial site you will need to reset your password immediately.
For those who haven't used the site recently, but still have an active account, you will need to log in and change your password as well.
If you logged into LivingSocial any time in the past, it's possible the name, birth date, email address and password you used are in the hands of hackers. If you used that password for any other online accounts, you need to change the password on those accounts immediately.
Learn my trick for creating a strong, memorable password.
While you're in your accounts, review your security questions. If a hacker has your name and birth date, they might be able to guess your security question. Or they might be able to research enough information about you online to guess it.
Read my tip on making strong security questions that hackers can't answer.
If a hacker does take over your account before you can stop them, learn how to take it back.
LivingSocial members should have received or will be receiving a notice about the breach from LivingSocial. The subject line should be "An important update on your LivingSocial.com account," and the email won't contain any links.
Hackers will be taking advantage of the confusion and sending out fake emails, so be careful. Don't click on any links in any email claiming to be from LivingSocial. They will most likely be links to malicious sites.
Instead, visit LivingSocial manually to change your password.
Learn more about detecting scam emails claiming to be from major companies.
If you don't use LivingSocial but know friends or family who might, be sure to forward this email to them.
Stay up-to-date on the latest data breachs and cyberattacks with my continually updated Breaking News page. I even update it on the weekends!
