Zappos.com is a hugely successful online shoe retailer. The site also markets clothing and is a subsidiary of Amazon. Unfortunately, customers of Zappos will have a terrible Monday morning surprise. Zappos has been hacked and has suffered a massive data breach, involving approximately twenty four million (24,000,000) customers:

"...  Cyber criminals may have accessed customers' names, e-mail addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, and the last four digits of consumers' credit card numbers, the firm said in an announcement that was posted on Zappos' Web site late Sunday night.  Full credit card numbers were not stolen, the firm said, because they were stored separately."

link:   Zappos says hacker may have accessed info on 24 million customers

Customers are requested to create a new password. However, the danger is that some customers may use the same email address and password at other sites. For example, if that same email address and password combination is used at a site like PayPal, then there is an immediate threat with this data breach. It becomes imperative that such email address and password combinations be changed.

There is a way to have a different password for every site that requires such security. It is a very easy system that will not place excessive stress on one's memory. The unfortunate breach at Zappos illustrates why using the same password on different sites is a very dangerous practice.

If you think that there are some family members or friends who are Zappos customers, please let them know about this massive security breach. Zappos customers will be notified by email. Hopefully that notification will be read.

Catherine Forsythe 

some additional links: 

Zappos customer data accessed in security breach

Zappos Says Hackers May Have Accessed Customer Account Details

Zappos hit by massive data breach

further updates:  Non-U.S. customers kept in the dark as Zappos cleans up after data breach 

 Zappos breach a lesson in password security