Zappos is an online retailer known for excellent customer service, fast and free shipping for purchases and returns, and a great selection of shoes. Despite the company’s popularity, it is not bulletproof to hackers.

As we saw in 2011 with the Sony PlayStation hackers and other incidents, the internet is not always a safe place.

This week, Zappos released a statement explaining that their database of over 24 million customers, had been hacked. Here’s the official statement:

First, the bad news:

We are writing to let you know that there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of your customer account information on Zappos.com, including one or more of the following: your name, e-mail address, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, the last four digits of your credit card number (the standard information you find on receipts), and/or your cryptographically scrambled password (but not your actual password).

THE BETTER NEWS:

The database that stores your critical credit card and other payment data was NOT affected or accessed.

SECURITY PRECAUTIONS:

For your protection and to prevent unauthorized access, we have expired and reset your password so you can create a new password. Please follow the instructions below to create a new password.

We also recommend that you change your password on any other web site where you use the same or a similar password. As always, please remember that Zappos.com will never ask you for personal or account information in an e-mail. Please exercise caution if you receive any emails or phone calls that ask for personal information or direct you to a web site where you are asked to provide personal information.

PLEASE CREATE A NEW PASSWORD:

We have expired and reset your password so you can create a new password.

Please create a new password by visiting Zappos.com and clicking on the “Create a New Password” link in the upper right corner of the web site and follow the steps from there.

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Luckily, credit card numbers were not compromised. Be sure to follow the steps above and reset your password for your personal security.

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