Epsilon, the world’s largest permission-based email marketing company, reported an unauthorized entry to its email database on March 30. The company, which sends more than 40 billion emails a year, has assured its clients that the hacked information is limited to names and email addresses. Epsilon has warned customers not to respond to fraudulent emails asking for account information. The hackers did not get any information regarding Social Security or credit card numbers. Financial institutions affected include Barclays Bank, Capital One Financial Corp., Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bancorp. The parent companies of Best Buy, Ethan Allen furniture stores, the Kroger grocery chain, the Home Shopping Network and Walgreens drugstores issued similar warnings, as did the Hilton and Marriott hotel chains.
Phishing' scams are the number one concern from this breach. Hackers could send fake emails pretending to be your bank, pharmacy, hotel or other business that were customers of Epsilon. The email will look real and will be convincing as attackers have the customer's name and the company information that they did business with. The email could ask unsuspecting users to click on a link which can ask for credit card numbers, run malware, install spyware or carry out other attacks.
Epsilon posted a press release two days later after the breach happened on March 30. The breach is currently under the investigation of the U.S. Secret Service, which asks all Epsilon customers who are suspicious about any fraudulent emails to report to phishing-report@us.cert.gov.
http://www.dailyrosetta.com/epsilon-data-breach-under-investigation/12190.html