Thaindian News

Irving, Apr 4(ANI): In what could be one of the largest data security breaches in history, the email addresses of potentially millions of Americans have been stolen from a Texas-based online marketing company.

The company, Epsilon, handles customer communications for many household names and sends over 40 billion e-mails annually.

The list of companies affected by the breach is growing by the day and includes Target Corp., Best Buy Co., JP Morgan and Citigroup.

Many Epsilon clients have contacted customers warning that attackers may use the stolen data to con them out of more information.

In a terse statement on its website, Epsilon said that it had detected an incident in which “clients’ customer data were exposed by an unauthorized entry into Epsilon’s e-mail system”.

It said that the only information stolen was e-mail addresses and an associated customer name.

No other personal identifiable information was exposed, and a full investigation into how the systems were penetrated in being conducted, the company said.

A phishing attack generally involves a scammer sending out phony emails under the name of a legitimate business or government agency.

The email asks the recipient to provide his login information or account numbers or just click through to a simple website so the company can verify the accuracy of the numbers.

Often, the scams are easily noticed if the scammer pretends to represent a company with which a consumer has never done business. (ANI)