As technology becomes more prevalent to businesses of all sizes and across numerous industries, the need for strong security and recovery plans also grows. Without disaster recovery planning, it could be extremely difficult for an organization to overcome a data breach and regain customer support.

LivingSocial, the popular e-commerce website, announced last week that it has become the latest company to suffer from a security issue. According to ABC News, the personal data of more than 50 million consumers was compromised. Company officials announced that the cyber criminals accessed names, email addresses and the date of birth of its users, along with encrypted passwords. The section of the site that contains credit card information was not breached, they said.

"Please note that LivingSocial will never ask you directly for personal or account information in an email," LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy wrote in a message to users. "We will always direct you to the LivingSocial website – and require you to log in – before making any changes to your account."

O'Shaughnessy's email also explained to customers that they would be required to change their LivingSocial password upon logging back into the site. He also encouraged users to alter their login information for other websites, as many individuals will share passwords for multiple sites.

ABC reported that O'Shaughnessy also emailed LivingSocial employees, and said that the company would need to work incredibly hard over the next few weeks to reestablish customers' trust.

Not only are data breaches expensive to recover from – especially if consumers' personal information is used against them – but reaffirming faith that the company is stable can be extremely difficult and take time. However, working with business continuity consultants can help establish a strong disaster recovery plan and keep all employees up-to-date.