TripAdvisor database hacked – email addresses compromised

If you have ever rated something on TripAdvisor, you may be in for a nasty surprise in your inbox in the coming weeks. Last weekend, hackers penetrated the TripAdvisor member database and stole up to 20 million records.

In a statement issued by TripAdvisor on their site, the only information they say was impacted involved email address. TripAdvisor does not store credit card information or other financial data and passwords are said to be secure. As a precaution, it may still be safe to change your TripAdvisor password and anywhere else you used that same password.

The impact from this should be relatively minimal – most people could end up with a bit more spam than usual, but in today’s spam overload world, a couple more V1ag7A! emails won’t really be noticeable.

TripAdvisor claims they identified the vulnerability and shut it down immediately. The full email sent to customers can be found after the jump.


To our travel community:

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. We’re taking this incident very seriously and are actively pursuing the matter with law enforcement.

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. The reason we are going directly to you with this news is that we think it’s the right thing to do. As a TripAdvisor member, I would want to know.

Unfortunately, this sort of data theft is becoming more common across many industries, and we take it extremely seriously.

I’d also like to reassure you that TripAdvisor does not collect members’ credit card or financial information, and we never sell or rent our member list. We will continue to take all appropriate measures to keep your personal information secure at TripAdvisor. I sincerely apologize for this incident and appreciate your membership in our travel community.

Steve Kaufer
Co-founder and CEO