TripAdvisor member database breached, part of it stolen

Just days after Play.com notified its customers of a breach that resulted in their email addresses being compromised and some of its users being targeted with malicious emails, it’s the turn of another Internet giant to send out warning emails to its customer base.

According to Tom Mollerus, TripAdvisor has been contacting its users and notifying them of a breach.

“This past weekend we discovered that an unauthorized third party had stolen part of TripAdvisor’s member email list. We’ve confirmed the source of the vulnerability and shut it down,” says Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO of TripAdvisor, in the email.

“How will this affect you? In many cases, it won’t. Only a portion of all member email addresses were taken, and all member passwords remain secure. You may receive some unsolicited emails (spam) as a result of this incident.”

He also made sure to point out that the site does not collect members’ credit card or financial information, and that it would never sell or rent its member list.

Information about the incident has already been shared with law enforcement, and an investigations into the breach is ongoing.