More customers exposed as big data breach grows

ronjor · Apr 4, 2011

(Reuters) - The names and e-mails of customers of Citigroup Inc and other large U.S. companies, as well as College Board students, were exposed in a massive and growing data breach after a computer hacker penetrated online marketer Epsilon.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/03/us-citi-capitalone-data-idUSTRE7321PI20110403

JRViejo · Apr 4, 2011

Supposedly, I received an email from my bank (caught in the SPAM folder) regarding this email breach. Checking the email header, the IP was from Epsilon (we know addresses can be spoofed), however, there are no Security Alerts about this incident in my bank account and a phone call verified this.

Looks like Spammers are taking advantage of this situation, so be extra careful in opening any such emails and clicking its links; contact your bank directly!

JRViejo · Apr 4, 2011

Just as I thought:

Security experts warned Monday that banking customers should worry about a wave of spearphishing attacks utilizing the recently-breached email database stolen from marketing firm Epsilon.
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Spearphishing worries follow Epsilon breach by Robert Lemos.

JRViejo · Apr 4, 2011

Epsilon Breach: Here's Which Companies' Email Lists Have Been Exposed by Doug Aamoth.

ronjor · Apr 4, 2011

Spear Phishing.

Condé Nast Got Hooked in $8 Million Spear-Phishing Scam

By Kim Zetter

A spear phisher managed to reel in a prize catch last year with a single hook when media giant Condé Nast took the bait and wired $8 million to his bank account after he posed as a legitimate business, according to a news account.

The alleged swindler failed to withdraw any funds before federal authorities intervened and froze the money, but the case highlights how little effort a scammer needs to invest in order to get a big payday.
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http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/04/condenast-hooked-by-spear-phisher/

JRViejo · Apr 7, 2011

The company responsible for one of the most publicized data breaches this year fears it may now lose some business but says that it continues to pump out marketing email as usual.

Epsilon Interactive's parent company, Alliance Data, apologized Wednesday for a data breach that has left millions of customers of some of the largest U.S. companies wondering if they may soon be the target of spam or phishing attacks.

Alliance Data said the incident -- now under investigation by federal authorities -- will have a minimal effect on its bottom line but worried about the possible impact on its business.
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Epsilon worries it may lose business after major data breach by Robert McMillan.

JRViejo · Apr 7, 2011

A data breach exposing the customer details of the likes of Citigroup, Hilton Hotels and Dell Australia was part of a series of socially-engineered attacks first reported by an Epsilon technology partner some four months ago, iTnews can reveal.

The world’s largest email service provider, Epsilon, disclosed on April 1, 2011 that the data it manages on behalf of a subset of its 2500 global clients had been accessed by hackers the day prior.

Today iTnews can reveal that Epsilon has been aware of the vulnerability behind this attack for some months.
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Epsilon breach used four-month-old attack by Brett Winterford.

monkeybutt · Apr 7, 2011

JRViejo said:

Supposedly, I received an email from my bank (caught in the SPAM folder) regarding this email breach. Checking the email header, the IP was from Epsilon (we know addresses can be spoofed), however, there are no Security Alerts about this incident in my bank account and a phone call verified this.

Looks like Spammers are taking advantage of this situation, so be extra careful in opening any such emails and clicking its links; contact your bank directly!
Click to expand...

I got a couple of these, was going to post them but have not had time.

JRViejo · Apr 11, 2011

One thing that neither Epsilon nor its parent company, marketing giant Alliance Data, are discussing is the fact that the Epsilon breach is just the latest development in a long-running campaign to hack into the service companies that pump out the bulk of the nation's sales coupons, air miles account updates, and friendly reminders that make up legitimate marketing email campaigns.

There are hundreds of these companies out there, ranging from small mom-and-pop operations to large subsidiaries of publicly traded corporations like Epsilon. And over the past year, spammers have been trying to break into them with a vengeance.
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Epsilon: A watershed for an industry under siege by Robert McMillan.

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