Epsilon Cyber Hit Puts Banking and Retail Customers at Risk
As budget talks continue to hog headlines in Washington this week, elsewhere in the world, hackers are busy working on their own financial plans.
According to a press release, email marketing firm Epsilon is the latest organization to take a cyber hit, compromising clients’ customer data and causing big headaches for the big-name corporations involved.
Among the list of companies alerting customers of the breach are financial giants Citibank, Capital One and JP Morgan, as well as the Home Shopping Network, Walgreens, Brookstone, Kroger, New York & Company and TiVo.
“The information that was obtained was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only,” Epsilon said in a statement. “A rigorous assessment determined that no other personal identifiable information associated with those names was at risk.”
But according to eWeek, access to email addresses could mean added dollar signs for the hacker(s), as phishing attempts are sure to follow.
The attack “is impacting practically anyone who has ever signed up to receive a retail offer or alert through [Epsilon’s] email account,” eWeek reported, noting that “as the world’s largest permission-based email marketing services, Epsilon has more than 2,500 clients and sends more than 40 billion emails annually.”
According to a statement from Epsilon, “A full investigation is currently underway.”
While we wait for more details to unfold, check out the following cybersecurity news headlines:
NSA to join probe of Nasdaq hack (BusinessWeek)
Massive web attack hits hundreds of thousands (BBC)
DOD to release new cyber strategy (Defense Systems)
Defense funding for cybersecurity is hard to pin down (NextGov)
Uncertainties abound about CERT’s role (ExecutiveGov)
GOP battles cyber terror (Times Record News)
Cyber attackers have the edge, US experts admit (National Journal)
Are we ready for a financial cyber attack? (Wall Street Journal)
Shifting cyber landscape presents risks, offers opportunities (Defense Systems)
Top 6 hurdles to securing a smart grid (GovComputerNews)
US Army seeks cybersecurity pros (UPI)
Video: Cybersecurity efforts struggle to keep up with hackers and thieves (Brookings)
Video: Interview with cybersecurity strategist on Nasdaq cyber attack (Bloomberg)
INTERNATIONAL ISSUES:
FBI to conduct joint cyber investigations with China (National Defense Magazine)
European Parliament bounces back from suspected cyber attack (PC World)
Germany declares war on hackers with new cyber defense center (Deutsche Welle)
What a cyberwar with China might look like (CSO)
INDUSTRY NEWS:
IBM says it sees 13 billion cybersecurity alerts every day (VentureBeat)
EMC acquires NetWitness, combines with RSA (ZDNet)
Hacktivist group Anonymous launches “payback” cyber attack on Sony (VentureBeat)
Citrix CTO says cloud is the safest place for your data (Mashable)
Samsung admits to installing stealth keyloggers on laptops (eWeek)
Former Intelligence CIO becomes new Bank of America CISO (BankInfoSecurity)
Northrop Grumman names new VP, General Manager in Cyber Intel Division (ExecutiveBiz)
TelePacific’s SmartVoice outage faces FBI cyber terror investigation (FierceTelecom)
BAE Systems hiring nearly 200 in Maryland (BizJournals)
Cybersecurity News 
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