Dear lord!  Sounds like another Mt.gox thing going on.  Thank god I withdrew all my currencies from MintPal last month.  Otherwise I'd be out about $120 in LTC and $60 in BTC at today's prices.  Not a lot, but still more than I'd care to lose.

Personally I never keep much on an exchange, just deposit coins I want to sell or trade for BTC then withdraw the BTC as soon as a sell occurs. The rest I keep in USB wallets that I only connect to a PC when I want to update the chain or move coins around.  I gripe about the tx fees I'm losing doing this, but it's not as bad as losing all my coins.

While I'm not a big fan of gov't regulation, I think I might like to see regulations for exchange licenses.  Right now anyone can download some free open source exchange script, install some [wallet]d software and make a legit looking exchange, after a certain point shutdown and keep all the coins.

I think eventually we'll see coin insurance, more coin escrow and legal services.

That having been said, it's not like a gov't or private bank never stole the peoples fiat currencies and it's not like any of us have never lost $20 bucks in the parking lot or had our wallet picked from our back pocket.

Any type of money can be lost.