Expect Malicious Spam Email Following the Epsilon Security Breach
Private e-mail addresses and/or customer names were compromised last week, after Epsilon suffered a data breach affecting their client companies. On Friday, Epsilon, the world's largest permission-based email service, released a statement reporting “The information that was obtained was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only. A rigorous assessment determined that no other personal identifiable information associated with those names was at risk. A full investigation is currently underway. The affected clients are approximately two percent of total clients and are a subset of clients for which Epsilon provides email services."
On Friday's statement, Epsilon did not release the affected client’s companys' names. The electronic direct-marketing firm sends 40 billion emails annually and counts more than 2,500 clients, including seven of the Fortune 10, to build and host their customer databases, reports Security Week.
It is likely you've already received an email from one or more of the companies effected, be it from a major bank, travel or retail site or a service provider such as TiVo, advising you that your e-mail and/or name was compromised, and assuring you that other information, such as your password remain safe. That email is genuine and does not require you to do anything. If an email similar to the one above requires you to do anything else, beware. The spams you may receive from now on, could very well take the form of fake email that appear to be from one of the companies involved, tempting you to click an extra link. Since you know about the email and/or name compromised, be extremely careful opening new emails with the same subject. You already know what happened.
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