Epsilon Email Breach Should Heighten Everyone's Awareness

It's unfortunate, but the largest email security breach has taken place this past week. Epsilon, an online marketing corporation who sends out over 40 billion emails a year had their list of email addresses stolen by sophisticated cyber thieves. Epsilon handled the email campaigns of some of the largest corporations in the country: Best Buy, Walgreens, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, and more. The breach has put many internet users on heightened alert, and for good reason.

Many have stated that the breach didn't cause a whole lot of damage, as all the cyber thieves stole was a list of email addresses. However, with these addresses they can conduct one of the largest phishing attacks we've ever seen.

In an interview with a local news affiliate, Steve J. Bernas president & CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving Chicago & Northern Illinois gave this advice to users everywhere, "It's fairly common for identity thieves to impersonate credible organizations with what appears to be legitimate email messages seeking to verify account information" he continues, "Along with attempting to get personal information phishing attacks are often the source of potentially harmful computer viruses."

With so many of our emails floating out in the open, it provides us a stark reminder on how to keep our information safe. The first, and most obvious tip is to never provide account numbers or your social security number over an email. No valid company will ever require you to send important information like that over an email.

With the size and scope that Epsilon's client base covered, all sorts of businesses were affected. According to this report, Epsilon handled over 2,500 clients. With such a large number, phishing attacks could come from all sorts of different directions.

Epsilon has responded to the security breach, apologizing to all of those affected, "We are extremely regretful that this incident has impacted a portion of Epsilon's clients and their customers" continuing, "We take consumer privacy very seriously and work diligently to protect customer information."

While having a list of emails won't directly cause harm, it should put all of us at a greater level of awareness. Phishing attacks are more effective than a lot of people give them credit for. The only way to limit their effectiveness is to stay aware, and educate those around us on how to keep safe.