Thursday
Apr072011
What the Epsilon security breach means for me.
Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 7:44AM
Epsilon handles email mailing lists for many large companies. Best Buy, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Walgreens, Disney, Barclay’s Bank, US Bancorp, Marriott, Ritz Carlton, LL Bean, Home Shopping Network and TiVo are just a few. You may have an received email from some of these about this.
Someone broke in and stole their email database of names and email addresses. They claim at this time that is all that was stolen.
What this means is that the attacker has these lists and can email customers with fake emails knowing your a customer. So they could send out a fake Best Buy email to all real Best Buy customers trying to get you to reveal information such as passwords, credit card info, etc.
As someone who follows Computers Solutions you should not be affected by this because you know that you should NEVER click on links in emails. Following that one simple rule you will remain safe.
The affected companies are sending out warnings so customers know they may receive fake emails but if you get one and are concerned, just go to the site yourself. You would just open your browser and go to www.bestbuy.com, for example and login with your username and password and check your account. Just dont click on the email link.
Someone broke in and stole their email database of names and email addresses. They claim at this time that is all that was stolen.
What this means is that the attacker has these lists and can email customers with fake emails knowing your a customer. So they could send out a fake Best Buy email to all real Best Buy customers trying to get you to reveal information such as passwords, credit card info, etc.
As someone who follows Computers Solutions you should not be affected by this because you know that you should NEVER click on links in emails. Following that one simple rule you will remain safe.
The affected companies are sending out warnings so customers know they may receive fake emails but if you get one and are concerned, just go to the site yourself. You would just open your browser and go to www.bestbuy.com, for example and login with your username and password and check your account. Just dont click on the email link.
Reader Comments (1)
Thanks for this...when I got two of those, my first thought was "ARE THESE real?"...so, following your always advice NOT to click, I did what you suggest (go directly to the site) and verified it was true...thanks for being in front of this...Bruce